ASER 2022 report: Learning levels decline after pandemic

Pratham’s Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2022 — the first full-fledged one after the pandemic — points to a national level decline in school children’s basic reading ability besides a dip in arithmetic abilities, confirming the ‘learning loss’ believed to have set in amid school closures. The other major trend noted in the report — of a significant proportion of students shift from private schools to government run — is also attributable to the pandemic-induced financial distress, migration of families and closure of small schools due to quality issues as well as funds shortage.

The ASER 2022 report, which surveyed 6.99 lakh children aged 3 to 16 across 616 rural districts, however, bears some good news. School-level enrolment continues to grow strong and fewer girls are now out of school.

ENROLMENT

India has recorded a 95% enrolment for the last 15 years in the 6-14 age group. Despite the pandemic forced school closure, the figure rose from 97.2% in 2018 to 98.4% in 2022. Only 1.6% children are now not enrolled.

Early child education records comforting figures: The number of 3-year-olds enrolled in some form of early childhood education is up by 7.1 percentage points from 2018 to stand at 78.3% in 2022. Among 4-year-olds, Anganwadi enrolment has increased from 50.5% (2018) to 61.2% (2022).

Govt schools back in favour: There is a clear increase in government school (6-14) enrolment across states — it rose from 65.6% in 2018 to 72.9% in 2022. This is contrast to the trend in the 2006-14 period, which marked a steady decline in government school enrolment for the 6-14 age group.

More girls make it to school:
From 10.3% of 11-14 year old girls not enrolled in schools in 2006, the proportion came down to 4.1% in 2018 and is at 2% in 2022. Save Uttar Pradesh, where it is at 4%, the number is lower across states.

The news gets even better for the girls in the 15-16 age group. From over 20% of this set of girls staying out of school in 2008, the number is at 7.9% in 2022, down from 13.5% in 2018.

Only 3 states have more than 10% of girls in this age group out of school: Madhya Pradesh (17%), Uttar Pradesh (15%), and Chhattisgarh (11.2%).

LEARNING LOSS
The ASER 2022 report says that children’s basic reading ability has dropped to ‘pre2012 levels, reversing the slow improvement achieved in the intervening years’. The decline is seen across gender and across both government and private schools and is more acute in lower grades.

Percentage of children in Class III in govt or private schools who can read at Class II level dropped from 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022. Class V students who can at least read a Class II level text fell from 50.5% in 2018 to 42.8% in 2022. Nationally, 69.6% of Class VIII students can read at least basic text in 2022, falling from 73% in 2018.

ARITHMETIC
Students in Class III who are able to at least do subtraction dropped from 28.2% in 2018 to 25.9% in 2022. For Class V, students who can do division has also fallen from 27.9% in 2018 to 25.6% in 2022.

Class VIII has done better with an improvement recorded — proportion of children who can do division has increased from 44.1% in 2018 to 44.7% in 2022.

ASER says that this increase is driven by improved outcomes among girls as well as among children enrolled in government schools, whereas boys and children enrolled in private schools show a decline over 2018 levels.

TUITION TIME
Rural India has been reporting an uptick in Class I-VIII paid tuition classes and it has moved up from 26.4% in 2018 to 30.5% in 2022. In UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand, the proportion of children taking paid private tuition increased by 8 percentage points.

ENGLISH CHECK
ASER recorded English abilities last in 2016 and the trend stays similar till date.

Children’s ability to read simple English sentences was at 24.7% in 2016 and is found at 24.5% in 2022. Class VIII has shown some improvement from 45.3% in 2016 to 46.7% in 2022.

THE SCHOOL
Average teacher attendance increased from 85.4% in 2018 to 87.1% in 2022, while average student attendance persists at 72% as before.

Textbooks had been distributed to all grades in 90.1% of primary schools and in 84.4% of upper primary schools.

Fraction of schools with useable girls’ toilets increased from 66.4% in 2018 to 68.4% in 2022. There were 76% schools with drinking water facilities compared with 74.85% in 2018, but there are interstate variations.

In 2022, 68.9% schools had a playground, up slightly from 66.5% in 2018.