More Students Enrolled In Govt Schools, But Learning Levels Drop: ASER Report

The proportion of children (age 6 to 14) enrolled in government schools increased sharply, the report pointed.

The enrolment of school-going students between the age groups of 6 and 14 increased to 98.4 percent in 2022, up from from 97.2 percent in 2018, with a higher number of children enrolled in government schools than private schools, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 that assesses learning outcomes across rural districts in the country.

Why this matters: The report was released on Wednesday, 18 January, after a gap of four years, covering 19,060 villages across 616 districts. As many as 6,99,597 children in the age group 3-16 were surveyed for the report. It draws comparison to the last report in 2018 – prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The key highlights:

• The percentage of class third students in both government and private schools – who can read at class second level – dropped from 27.3 percent in 2018 to 20.5 percent in 2022.

• Among class fifth students, proportion of children who could read at least class 2-level text dropped from 50.5 percent to 42.8 percent in 2022.

• The drop in basic reading ability among class eight students was less as compared to others. However, the general decline was visible in every state.

• There was also nationwide decline in students' basic arithmetic levels as compared to to 2018.

• The number of students taking private tuitions has seen a jump.

There's some good news: “The proportion of children (age 6 to 14) enrolled in government schools increased sharply from 65.6 percent in 2018 to 72.9 percent in 2022. Increase in government school enrollment is visible in almost every state in the country,” the report said.

You should read on because...There has also been an increase in enrollment of girls in schools. The percentage of girls aged 11-14 years who were out of school stood at 2 percent in 2022, but was 4.1 percent in 2018.

The worst performing state in this regard is Uttar Pradesh – where the number is still 4 percent.

Among older girls (15-16 age group), only three states have more than 10 percent of girls out of school:

• Madhya Pradesh 17 percent

• Uttar Pradesh 15 percent

• Chhattisgarh 11.2 percent