Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024

30.01.2025

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024

Why in the news?         

             After a prolonged decline due to learning losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has now been a modest recovery in foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) among school students, according to the ASER 2024, released recently.

About Annual Status of Education Report (ASER):

• It is an annual citizen-led survey that provides reliable estimates of children’s schooling and learning levels in rural India.
• It is published by the Pratham, an NGO, and the survey has been conducted every year since 2005.
• In 2016, ASER switched to an alternate-year model where the ‘basic’ ASER is conducted in all rural districts of the country every other year rather than annually.
• In the gap years, a smaller survey (typically 1-2 districts per state) focuses on other age groups and domains.
• The ‘basic’ ASER survey tracks enrollment for children aged 3-16 and assesses basic reading and arithmetic of children aged 5-16.
• ASER is a household-based rather than school-based survey.
  • This design enables all children to be included those who have never been to school or have dropped out; those who are in government schools, private schools, religious, or other types of schools; and those who are absent from school on the day of the assessment.

Highlights of ASER 2024:

• During the pandemic years, there was a big jump in government school enrolment, with the proportion of 6–14-year-old children enrolled in government schools rising from 65.6 percent in 2018 to 72.9 per cent in 2022. This number is back to 66.8 percent in 2024.
• Private school enrolment has been steadily rising since 2006 in rural India.
  • The proportion of 6-14-year-olds enrolled in private schools rose from 18.7 percent in 2006 to 30.8 percent in 2014 and stayed at that level in 2018.

• The report also noted that not only has there been a full recovery from the pandemic-induced learning loss, the learning levels in the primary grades are higher than past levels in some cases.
  • The percentage of Class 3 children who can perform at least subtraction at the basic arithmetic level was 33.7% in 2024, up from 25.9% in 2022 and higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 28.2% in 2018.
  • While private schools saw a rise of about 4 percent, government schools saw a sharper 7 percent surge in this field.
  • The percentage of Class 5 children who can now read a text at the Class 2 level was 44.8% in 2024, up from 38.5% in 2022 and nearly matching the 2018 rate of 44.2%.
  • However, this percentage has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels at private schools; in 2024, it was 59.3%, up from 56.8% in 2022, but still less than 65.1% in 2018.

• More than 82 percent of children in the 14-16 age group know how to use a smartphone, but only 57 percent of them use it for educational purposes.
• The data in the report shows that both teacher and student attendance in government elementary schools has increased.
  • From 72.4% in 2018 to 73% in 2022 to 75.9% in 2024, the average student attendance rose.
  • Meanwhile, from 85.1% in 2018, the average teacher attendance rose to 86.8% in 2022 and 87.5% in 2024.

• In pre-primary schools for children aged 5, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Nagaland are among the states with enrollment rates above 90%.

                                                              Source: The Hindu

With reference to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), consider the following statements:

1. It is a citizen-led survey that provides reliable estimates of children’s schooling and learning levels in rural India.

2. It is published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

3. It is a household-based rather than school-based survey.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

A.Only one

B.Only two

C.All three

D.None

Answer B