ASER SURVEY 

1. Context

Since 2005, ASERs survey children in the age group of 6 to 14 to record trends in school enrollment, attendance, and reading and arithmetic abilities.

This year, nearly 7 lakh children across 616 districts were surveyed.

2. Pandemic effect on school enrollment

• Enrollment has gone up even in a period when schools were shut and we were already at very high levels before.
• It has risen further, including for older age groups, even though there was a fear that older girls especially may drop out.
• And then there is a big shift to government schools we’ll need more analysis on what that means.
• Maybe it is temporary, but overwhelmingly, the voice of 7 lakh children and their families is that it is good to be back in school.
• That carries with it both a kind of momentum and a responsibility.
• Now that the students are there, we has to make sure their attendance rises.
• Attendance patterns haven’t changed very much as schools have opened and there is a huge variation in attendance across the country.

3. Improvements in infrastructure 

• Over time, there has been an improvement in infrastructure variables.
• The issue of enrollment is coming potentially from the fact that during Covid, the rural private schools couldn’t do much because their economy was very fragile.
• But being attached to the State, government schools distributed textbooks they often distributed midday meals.
• The teachers were able to reach out in some form or fashion. 
• There is a pull factor from our usual experience it is also the case that maybe family incomes have been hit, but everybody still believes that schooling must happen.
• Parental involvement and interest in education should be leveraged.

4. Increase in private tuition

• The reason private tuition went up is probably that it is more flexible.
• You could probably negotiate better with the provider that this month I don’t have money, but next month I will.
• And so parents felt that schools are closed we are not sure when they will open, but we need to get some extra help.
• In a way, They can think about this as local organizing.
• Tuition can mean many things, but it is also a function of parents wanting more for their children and going wherever possible to get it.

5. NIPUN Bharat

• The given schemes like National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) mission, received any guidelines, and has any teacher been trained?
• Almost 80 percent of the schools received guidelines, teachers have been trained.
• This means that the seriousness with which governments are also sort of pushing on NIPUN Bharat is quite high.
• It makes the case for how to keep the momentum going.

6. Decline in learning levels

• There is a decline in learning levels since 2018, but again it varies across the country.
• And strangely to understand from experts why the drop in reading is more than in math.
• Is it because math, especially at such a basic level, is used by people much more? It’s hard to say, but we can see that recovery is possible.
• The big point that would be useful to emphasize is NIPUN Bharat’s goals are that every child in Class three is at grade level, which means they can read or can do basic arithmetic.
• The number of such children before Covid was around 30 percent and now is somewhere for reading around 20 percent and math around 25-26 percent.

7. Integration between the Anganwadi and the school

• Integration between the Anganwadi system and school system is urgently needed because the work starts there.
• There are Anganwadi everywhere and their enrollment has gone up.
• The Anganwadi system is generally less well-funded at least for the education part.
• And the kids who are past Class 4 and 5 now. They to have undergone learning losses.
• There’s a case for a big catch-up to be done there as well.
• In the next year’s plans, because most states will now go to their annual work plans for the next year, hoping that these points can be considered.

8. The way forward

• In the past 10 years, we’ve seen improvement but it has been in small bits.
• So it means that we need to shake up things.
• Therefore, what we are going to do as a school system, as a family system, is to say that every year big jumps need to be taken.
• It is a critical thing for improving the productivity of the country.
• Business as usual is not going to work.
• Again, it’s not a new message, but it’s a message that needs to be reiterated.
• And perhaps because of the new education policy and the fact that after Covid, everybody’s mentality is slightly different, it is worth reinforcing.