Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024

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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

• It is an annual citizen-led survey that provides reliable estimates of children’s schooling and learning levels in rural India.
• ASER is published by the NGO Pratham, 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; as well as 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 percent 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 of6-14-year-olds enrolled in private schoolsrose 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 four percent, government schools saw a sharper seven 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 percentagehas 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 five, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Nagaland are among the states with enrollment rates above 90%.

Annual Status of Education Report FAQs

Q1. What is India’s annual education budget?

Ans. The Budget Allocation for the FY 2024-25 of ₹ 73,498 cr is the highest ever for the Department of School Education & Literacy

Q2. What is the new education policy 2024?

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Ans. The National Education Policy 2024 places a strong emphasis on integrating vocational training and internship from an early age, offering a significant opportunity to blend skills-based learning with the mainstream school curriculum.

Q3. What is NGO Pratham famous for?

Ans. Established in 1994, Pratham is known for its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a nationwide survey that assesses children’s learning levels in rural India.

Source: TH