ASER Report 2022

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What are the Findings of the recent ASER Report? 
• What can be Inferred from the above Findings?
• What is the Road Ahead to Improve these Foundational Skills?

Why in News?

• After two years of a Covid-19-induced school shutdown, the recently released 17th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for 2022 contains both good (high enrolment) and bad news (drop in learning levels).
• ASERs (by NGO Pratham) have been surveying children aged 6 to 14 since 2005 to track trends in school enrolment, attendance and reading and arithmetic abilities.
• This year’s report (came after 2018) surveyed 7 lakh children across 19,060 villages in 616 districts in the country.

What are the Findings of the recent ASER Report? 
 

Image Caption: Findings of the ASER 2022

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• School enrolment touched a record high: As the pandemic subsided, school enrolment touched 98.4% in 2022 up from 97.2% in 2018, when the last full pre-pandemic survey was conducted.
• The proportion of girls not enrolled has also reduced: For girls aged 11-14, this share dropped from 4.1% in 2018 to 2% in 2022 (which stood at 10.3% in 2006).
• Drop in learning levels:  
  • Between 2014 and 2018, learning levels in terms of foundational skills in reading and arithmetic had been rising gradually. 
    • For example, the proportion of Class 3 students who could read a Class 2 textbook had gone up from 23.6% in 2014 to 27.2% in 2018, while those who could do at least subtraction rose from 25.3% to 28.2%.
  • However, in 2022, the basic reading ability of children in Class 3 dipped by 6.8% points from 2018 and the proportion of children in Class 3 who could do at least subtraction fell to 25.9% in 2022.
  • Clearly, the pandemic has resulted in learning loss. However, the loss is much greater in reading as compared to arithmetic.
• A small, steady increase in the children availing private tuitions: Between 2018 and 2022, this proportion increased further – from 26.4% to 30.5% – a trend for over a decade now.
• Proportion of children in government schools has risen: The percentage of children (aged 11 – 14) who are enrolled in government schools has risen from 65% in 2018 to 71.7% in 2022 – a trend that was reflected in the government’s UDISE+ data.

What can be Inferred from the above Findings?

• An improvement in infrastructure variables, government schools distributing textbooks, midday meals during lockdown led to a pull factor, increasing enrolment in government schools.
  • This phenomenon can also be attributed to several other factors, including job losses and the closure of budget private schools in rural areas during the pandemic.
• Private tuition probably increased because it is more flexible and provided some extra help to children when schools were closed. For example, if a person is unable to pay in a given month, they can pay the following month.
• The drop in reading levels is more than in maths, because maths at such a basic level, is used by people much more.
• This is despite the fact that 80% of the government schools have received guidelines and teachers have been trained under the NIPUN Bharat and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) mission (both conceived under the National Education Policy 2020). 
  • The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat’s goals are that every child by Class 3 is at grade level, which means they can read or can-do basic arithmetic.

What is the Road Ahead to Improve these Foundational Skills?

• Foundational Literacy and Numeracy is a critical thing for improving the productivity of the country. 
• Therefore, an integration between the anganwadi system and the school system is urgently needed because the work starts there. 
• In order to make sure that happens, the anganwadi system (especially for the education part) needs to be well-funded.

Q1) Who conducts ASER survey and why?

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a survey conducted by NGO Pratham. ASERs have been surveying children aged 6 to 14 since 2005 to track trends in school enrolment, attendance and reading and arithmetic abilities. The 17^th Edition – ASER 2022

(came after 2018) surveyed 7 lakh children across 19,060 villages in 616 districts in the country.

Q2) What are the schemes launched by the government of India to improve Foundational Skills of school children?

The NIPUN Bharat and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) mission (both conceived under the NEP 2020). The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat’s goals are that every child by Class 3 is at grade level, which means they can read or can-do basic arithmetic.

Source: ASER 2022: Post-Covid, student count at record high, but big dip in learning | IE | TH | ToI

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrocqIrEXwk