No lessons learnt: ASER report 2019 shows India's learning crisis continues

2.7 per cent of rural children in Class I could not even recognise letters in their medium of instruction, and 35.7 per cent could not recognise numbers from 1-9

India's learning crisis is not news. The National Achievement Survey of 2017 tells us that one in three students in Class III cannot read small text with comprehension and that one in two students in Class III cannot use math to solve daily life problems. The findings from the 2018 ASER report are even more stark — only 50 per cent of children in Class V in rural India could read a Class II-level text, and only 28 per cent of Class V students could solve a division problem. 

But when exactly do these learning deficits begin? The ASER data from