ASER 2024: Govt Schools Show Improvement In Reading, Basic Arithmetic Levels

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 is a nationwide survey that was released on January 28 by Pratham Foundation. This year, the rural household survey reached 649,491 children in 17,997 villages across 605 rural districts in India.

This year's survey has revealed that Anganwadi centres continue to be the biggest provider of services in pre-primary age group in India. Since 2018, more than half of all children aged 3 and 4 are enrolled in Anganwadi centres. In Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Karnataka, more than 75 per cent children are enrolled in Anganwadi centres in both these age groups.

Additionally, the survey revealed that only in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir the enrollment in government institutions has increased substantially since 2018 (11.2 percentage points in Punjab and 7.6 percentage points in Jammu and Kashmir). In both these states, this trend is driven by an increase in enrollment in pre-primary classes in government schools. Approximately one-third of all 5-year-olds attend a private school or pre-school in 2024. However, this figure was 37.3 per cent in 2018, fell to 30.8 per cent in 2022, and returned to 37.5 per cent in 2024.

In 2024, ASER recorded that percentage of class 3 students who are able to at least read their level of text has been the highest in the past few years. The percentage of class 3 children able to at least read class 2 level text was 20.9 per cent in 2018. This figure fell to 16.3 per cent in 2022, and has increased to 23.4 per cent in 2024. The improvement in government schools is higher than the corresponding recovery for private schools. Following a decline in class 3 reading levels in government schools in most states in 2022, all states have shown a recovery in 2024. States with more than a 10 percentage point increase in this proportion between 2022 and 2024 in government schools include Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, and Maharashtra.

Similarly, reading levels improved substantially among class 5 , especially for those who are enrolled in

government schools. The proportion of class 5 children in government schools who can read a class 2 level text fell from 44.2 per cent in 2018 to 38.5 per cent in 2022 and then recovered to 44.8 per cent in 2024. Small improvements are also seen in reading levels for class 5 children in private schools, which fell from 65.1 per cent in 2018 to 56.8 per cent in 2022 and increased to 59.3 per cent in 2024.

A similar recovery was observed in class 8 students in government schools, where the reading levels had decreased from 69 per cent in 2018 to 66.2 per cent in 2022 but then rose to 67.5 per cent in 2024. However, the performance of private school students remains unchanged between 2022 and 2024. Government schools in states such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Sikkim show notable improvements. However, declines are observed in states like Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.

The ASER arithmetic tasks assess whether a child can recognise numbers from 1 to 9, recognise numbers from 11 to 99, do a 2-digit numerical subtraction problem with borrowing, or correctly solve a numerical division problem (3-digit by 1-digit). In the sampled household, these tasks are administered one-on-one to each sampled child in the 5-16 age group. The child is marked at the highest level that she or he can reach comfortably. The assessment method has remained the same since 2006, enabling comparisons over time.

For class 3 students, the All-India figure who are able to at least do a numerical subtraction problem was

28.2 per cent in 2018 and 25.9 per cent in 2022. This figure has increased to 33.7 per cent in 2024. Among government school students, this figure went from 20.9 per cent in 2018 to 20.2 per cent in 2022, increasing to 27.6 per cent in 2024. Government schools across most states have shown gains since 2022, with over 15 percentage point increases recorded in states like Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.

The proportion of children in class 5 who can at least do a numerical division problem has also improved. This figure was 27.9 per cent in 2018, 25.6 per cent in 2022 and then rose to 30.7 per cent in 2024. This change is also driven mainly by government schools. States with the showing most improvement (more than 10 percentage points) in government schools include Punjab and Uttarakhand.

While class 3 and 5 level students have shown slight improvements, the levels for class 8 students has remained almost similar as past year, as it went from 44.1 per cent in 2018 to 44.7 per cent in 2022 to 45.8 per cent in 2024.

As per the report, the proportion of girls not enrolled has increased slightly from 7.9 per cent in 2022 to 8.1 per cent in 2024. While several states have seen a decline in the proportion of girls who are not enrolled, this proportion remains higher than 10 per cent in a few states such as Madhya Pradesh (16.1%), Uttar Pradesh (15%), Rajasthan (12.7%), Mizoram (12.3%), Gujarat (10.5%), and Chhattisgarh (10%).

Meanwhile, proportion of 15-16-year-old children who are not enrolled in school dropped sharply from 13.1 per cent in 2018 to 7.5 per cent in 2022. However, it has now increased a tad to 7.9 per cent in 2024 at the all-India level.

Since 2005, the NGO Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has been recording trends related to school enrollment, attendance, and reading and arithmetic abilities among children ages 6-14 years in rural areas of the country. This year, the NGO has also included Digital Literacy to this survey.

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