Govt, private school enrolments back to 2018 levels: ASER report

ASER report says more boys know how to use smartphone

The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), released on Tuesday, has found that government and private school enrolment is back to 2018 levels, evidence that the increase in government school enrolment during the Covid years was driven more by necessity than choice. It also said that this is further evidence of recovery in other sectors of the economy.

 

It found that the learning levels of school-going children have not only bounced back after the slump witnessed during the pandemic but that the “magnitude” of the “sudden improvement in learning levels” has not been seen in the 20 years since data on the foundational reading and arithmetic abilities of school students has been presented.

 

 

In the ASER report, its director, Wilma Wadhwa, attributed this to the New Education Policy 2020 and its focus on foundational skills.

 

The ASER 2024 report revealed that the recovery has been better in government schools, while the learning levels in private schools are still below their pre-pandemic levels.

 

For example, basic reading and arithmetic skills among students of Classes III and V in rural areas saw larger gains in government schools than in private ones. However, the private school advantage remained the same, namely, twice as high as government school levels, it said.

 

On the enrolment front, out-of-school numbers for older age groups, which had been falling steadily, are well below their 2018 levels, though marginally higher than the 2022 estimates. Government and private school enrolment is also back to 2018 levels. “This seems to confirm that the increase in government school enrolment observed during the Covid years was driven more by necessity than choice,” it said.

 

For the first time, ASER also included a section on digital literacy — access, ownership, and use of smartphones, as well as basic digital skills — among 14- to 16-year-olds. It found that more boys than girls report knowing how to use a smartphone — 85.5 per cent of boys compared to 79.4 per cent of girls.

 

The report said that in 2018, nearly 90 per cent of rural households had basic mobile phones and 36 per cent had smartphones. In 2022, the number of households with smartphones had risen to over 74 per cent, and in 2024 it had grown to 84 per cent.

 

While the percentage of children with access to a smartphone at home is nearing saturation, the proportion of children aged 14-16 who own a smartphone has risen from 19 per cent to about 31 per cent within a year, between 2022 and 2024.

 

It said more than 57 per cent of children in the 14-16 age group use smartphones for educational purposes, while 76 per cent use the device for accessing social media. The report said, “82.2 per cent of all children in the 14-16 age group reported knowing how to use a smartphone.”

 

While the use of a smartphone for educational activities was similar among girls and boys, girls were less likely than boys to report using social media (78.8 per cent of boys compared to 73.4 per cent of girls), it said. Kerala stands out in this respect, with over 80 per cent of children reporting that they used a smartphone for educational activities and over 90 per cent using it for social media, the report said.

 

The report observed that the main use of smartphones during the pandemic was as a carrier of texts, worksheets, and videos, which substituted textbooks. Virtual training sessions also became common. “As the pandemic faded away, the digital skills learnt during the period sustained, although some practices became less important and a new excitement began to build around artificial intelligence,” the report said.

 

It also found that technology has helped overcome barriers, such as language, with writing or dictating in local languages; translation from one language to another is now easy.

 

The ASER 2024 is a nationwide rural household survey that reached 649,491 children in 17,997 villages across 605 rural districts in India. Facilitated by Pratham, in each surveyed district, a local organisation or institution conducted the survey.   

 

Pandemic gains lost 

- Increase in government school enrolment observed during the Covid-19 pandemic has reversed

- Full recovery from pandemic-induced learning loss is underway

- Among those aged 14-16, 82.2% reported knowing how to use a smartphone, but only 57% use it for educational purposes, while 76% use it for social media

- The proportion of “underage” children (aged five years or below) in Class 1 has dropped to its lowest ever, at 16.7%.