ASER Report 2024 - Part 01

ASER Report 2024 - Part 01

(இதன் தமிழ் வடிவத்திற்கு இங்கே சொடுக்கவும்)

• National Status of Education in ASER 2024
• The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 is a comprehensive nationwide rural household survey facilitated by NGO Pratham.
• ASER has been the world’s largest citizen-led education survey since 2005.
• The survey evaluates foundational skills in reading, arithmetic, and basic English.
• It reached 649,491 children in 17,997 villages across 605 rural districts in India.
• The survey was conducted in each district by a local organization or institution.
• ASER 2024 presents key findings separately for three groups of children:
• Pre-primary (age group 3-5 years), Elementary (age group 6-14 years), and Older Children (age group 15-16 years).

• Pre-Primary (Age Group 3-5 Years)
• Enrollment in Pre-Primary Institutions
• Enrollment in pre-primary institutions has steadily improved between 2018 and 2024.
• Children are enrolled in Anganwadi centres, government pre-primary classes, or private LKG/UKG.
• Three-Year-Olds
• Enrollment increased from 68.1% in 2018 to 75.8% in 2022 and 77.4% in 2024.
• States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Telangana have near-universal enrollment.
• Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh have the highest proportion of non-enrolled three-year-olds, exceeding 50%.
• Four-Year-Olds
• Enrollment rose from 76% in 2018 to 82% in 2022 and 83.3% in 2024.
• States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha have enrollment rates exceeding 95%.
• Five-Year-Olds
• Enrollment increased from 58.5% in 2018 to 62.2% in 2022 and 71.4% in 2024.
• States where enrollment exceeds 90% include Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Nagaland.

• Type of Pre-Primary Institution
• Anganwadi centres remain the largest provider of pre-primary education services.
• More than 50% of children aged 3 and 4 have been enrolled in Anganwadi centres since 2018.
• In Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Karnataka, over 75% of children in this age group are enrolled in Anganwadi centres.
• Around one-third of all five-year-olds attended a private school or pre-school in 2024.
• This figure was 37.3% in 2018, dropped to 30.8% in 2022, and rebounded to 37.5% in 2024.
• Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir show an increasing trend in the government pre-primary institutions.
• The Enrollment increased by 11.2 percentage points in Punjab and 7.6 percentage points in Jammu & Kashmir.

• Age of Entry to Standard I
• The proportion of underage children (age 5 or below) in Standard I has steadily declined:
• 2018: 25.6%
• 2022: 22.7%
• 2024: 16.7% (lowest recorded level)
• This proportion has either declined or remained stable across all states.
• In Gujarat, the decline is particularly sharp, from 36.4% in 2022 to less than 4% in 2024.

• Elementary (Age Group 6-14 Years)
• Enrollment Trends
• School enrollment rates for children in the 6-14 age group have remained consistently above 95% for the past two decades.
• The enrollment rate was 98.4% in 2022 and remains 98.1% in 2024.
• Across all states, enrollment for this age group remains above 95% in 2024.
• Government School Enrollment
• In 2018, 65.5% of children in this age group were enrolled in government schools.
• Government school enrollment surged to 72.9% during the pandemic (2022) but declined to 66.8% in 2024.
• The decline is observed across all states except Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir.

• Reading Proficiency
• Assessment Method
• The ASER reading task assesses children's ability to read letters, words, a simple paragraph (Std I level), or a story (Std II level).
• Administered one-on-one to children aged 5-16.
• The assessment method has remained unchanged since 2006, allowing for the long-term comparisons.

• Reading Trends
• Reading levels have improved for government school students in all elementary grades (Std I-VIII) since 2022.
• Standard III
• In 2024, basic reading levels for Std III children in government schools reached their highest level since ASER began.
• The proportion of Std III children able to read Std II level text was:
• 2018: 20.9%
• 2022: 16.3%
• 2024: 23.4%
• The improvement in government schools is higher than in private schools.
• States with a more than 10 percentage point increase (2022-2024): Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Maharashtra.

• Standard V
• Reading levels improved substantially for Std V children, especially in government schools.
• The proportion of Std V children in government schools who can read a Std II level text:
• 2018: 44.2%
• 2022: 38.5%
• 2024: 44.8%
• Mizoram (64.9%) and Himachal Pradesh (64.8%) had the highest proportions of Std V children in government schools reading Std II level text.
• States with over a 10-percentage point increase: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu.

• Standard VIII
• Reading levels increased for Std VIII government school children:
• 2018: 69%
• 2022: 66.2%
• 2024: 67.5%
• Private school performance remained unchanged between 2022 and 2024.
• Notable improvements: Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim.
• Declines: Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana.

• Arithmetic Proficiency
• Assessment Method
• ASER arithmetic tasks assess:
• Number recognition (1-9 and 11-99).
• Two-digit subtraction (with borrowing).
• Three-digit by one-digit division.
• Administered one-on-one to children aged 5-16.
• The assessment method has remained unchanged since 2006, allowing long-term comparisons.
• Arithmetic Trends
• Nationally, children's basic arithmetic levels have shown substantial improvement in both government and private schools, reaching the highest levels in over a decade.

• Standard III
• The proportion of Std III children who can do at least a numerical subtraction problem:
• 2018: 28.2%
• 2022: 25.9%
• 2024: 33.7%
• Among government school students:
• 2018: 20.9%
• 2022: 20.2%
• 2024: 27.6%
• Government schools across most states have shown gains since 2022.
• States with over a 15-percentage point increase: Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh.
• Standard V
• The proportion of Std V children who can do at least a numerical division problem:
• 2018: 27.9%
• 2022: 25.6%
• 2024: 30.7%
• Improvement is mainly driven by government schools.
• States with more than a 10-percentage point increase in government schools: Punjab, Uttarakhand.
• Std VIII
• The percentage of students who could solve arithmetic problems changed as follows:
• The percentage increased from 44.1% in 2018 to 44.7% in 2022, and then further rose to 45.8% in 2024.
• No significant change was observed in arithmetic performance.

• Older Children (15-16 Years) Enrollment Trends
• The percentage of children not enrolled in school changed as follows:
• The percentage decreased from 13.1% in 2018 to 7.5% in 2022, and then slightly increased to 7.9% in 2024.
• Girls' non-enrollment rates changed as follows:
• The percentage increased from 7.9% in 2022 to 8.1% in 2024.
• States where girls' non-enrollment exceeds 10% include:
• Madhya Pradesh (16.1%), Uttar Pradesh (15%), Rajasthan (12.7%), Mizoram (12.3%), Gujarat (10.5%), Chhattisgarh (10%).
• Digital Literacy Among 14-16-Year-Olds
• Access to Smartphones
• 90% of boys and girls have access to a smartphone at home.
• The percentage of children using smartphones is as follows:
• Boys: 85.5%.
• Girls: 79.4%.
• Lower access and usage were observed in: Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh.

• Smartphone Ownership
• Ownership increases with age:
• 14 years old: 27% own a smartphone.
• 16 years old: 37.8% own a smartphone.
• The gender gap in smartphone ownership is as follows:
• Boys: 36.2%.
• Girls: 26.9%.

• Smartphone Usage
• 82.2% of children know how to use a smartphone.
• Activities performed:
• Educational activity: 57%.
• Social media: 76%.
• Gender differences in social media usage:
• Boys (78.8%) use social media more than girls (73.4%).

• State exceptions:
• In Kerala, over 80% use smartphones for education, and over 90% for social media.
• Digital Safety Awareness
• Among social media users:
• 62% knew how to block/report a profile.
• 55.2% knew how to make a profile private.
• 57.7% knew how to change a password.
• Boys generally have higher digital safety awareness than girls.
• Digital Skills Assessment
• 70.2% of boys and 62.2% of girls could bring a smartphone.
• Over 75% of children successfully performed digital tasks like setting an alarm, searching online, and sharing a YouTube video.
• In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala, girls performed as well as or better than boys.

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