Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 19, Nov 2021

Reference News:

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 was recently released.

• The ASER survey was facilitated by the NGO, Pratham.

Key findings of the report 

• Pandemic effect: The percentage of rural children who were not enrolled in school doubled during the pandemic.
• Increase in enrolment: Government schools saw an increase in enrolment at the expense of private schools.
  • Government school enrolment spiked significantly from 64.3% in 2018 to 70.3% in 2021, while private school enrolment dropped from 32.5% to 24.4% over the same period.
• Reasons for enrolment shift: Financial distress, the closure of affordable private schools and the movement of migrants to rural areas

• Never attended school: Over a third of children enrolled in Classes 1 and 2 have never attended school in person.
• Lack of learning resources: While 92% of children had textbooks for their grade, only one third of them had access to any other learning resources or support.
• Limited smartphone availability: With smartphone availability and access limited, online learning was restricted to a quarter of students.
• Varied experiences: 91% of students from Kerala and almost 80% from Himachal Pradesh had online education, but only 10% from Bihar and 13% from West Bengal.
• Private tuition: 40% of the school children are now opting for private tuition classes compared to 30% in 2018. This proportion has increased across both sexes and all grades and school types. The incidence of tuition has increased across all States except Kerala.

Suggestions

• Government schools and teachers are equipped and given the necessary resources for this surge in enrolment.