Annual Status of Education Report 2023
Source: Annual Status of Education Report 2023
GS II: Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
Overview
- News in Brief
- Annual Status of Education Report
- Annual Status of Education Report 2023
- Issues Related to Elementary Education in India
Why in the News?
The 18th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 titled ‘Beyond Basics’ was released by NGO Pratham.
News in Brief
- The 2023 survey focused on an older group of 14-to-18-year-old children, specifically on their ability to apply reading and math skills to everyday situations, and their aspirations.
- It also sought to capture their access to digital technology, and whether they possess the skills to use it.
- Trends in basic learning have remained relatively unchanged over the last decade.
- Although the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and ASER use different metrics and methods for assessing learning
- Both point to the fact that basic learning levels of elementary school children need significant improvement.
Annual Status of Education Report
- Facilitated by Pratham Education Foundation since 2005.
- The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a large-scale citizen-led household survey.
- It aims to understand whether children in rural India are enrolled in school and whether they are learning.
- The basic, nationwide ASER survey is conducted every alternate year.
- It collects data on the enrolment status of
- Children in the age group of 3-16 years
- Basic reading and arithmetic levels of children in the age group of 5-16 years.
- ASER 2023 will also capture digital access and skills in rural India.
Reason for Focus on 14-18 age Group
- To ensure that these young people have the skills and the opportunities needed to help them build a better future for themselves, their families, and for the country.
- It is important to understand children’s pathways after leaving elementary school before they become adults at the age of 18.
Annual Status of Education Report 2023
- ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ survey was conducted in 28 districts across 26 states, reaching a total of 34,745 youth
in the age group 14-18 years.
Overall, 86.8% of 14-18-year-olds are enrolled in an educational institution.
- The percentage of youth not enrolled is 3.9% for 14-year-old youth
- 32.6% for 18-year olds.
Steam of Enrollment
- Std XI or higher, more than half are enrolled in the Arts/Humanities stream (55.7%)
- Followed by STEM (31.7%)
- Commerce (9.4%)
- Females are less likely to be enrolled in the STEM stream (28.1%) than males (36.3%).
Vocational Training
- Only 5.6% of surveyed youth report taking vocational training.
- Youth at the college level are the most likely to be taking vocational training (16.2%).
- Most youths are taking short-duration courses (of 6 months or less).
Working
- A higher percentage of males (40.3%) than females (28%) report doing work other than household work.
- This is for at least 15 days during the preceding month.
- Most youth who are working in activities other than household work tend to be working on family farms.
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2022-23 shows that 58.4% of individuals in rural India work in agriculture, either on their own land or as casual labourers
Basic skills in reading and arithmetic
- About 25% of this age group still cannot read an Std II level text fluently in their regional language.
- More than half struggle with division (3-digit by 1-digit) problems.
- A little over half can read sentences in English (57.3%).
- Females (76%) do better than males (70.9%) in reading a Std II level text.
- Males do better than their female counterparts in arithmetic and English reading.
Digital Access
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- 90% of all youth have a smartphone in the household and know how to use it.
- Males (43.7%) are more than twice as likely to have their smartphone than females (19.8%).
- Availability of a computer/laptop in the households is much lower, with only 9%.
Work Aspirations
- The two most popular choices among the boys and young men in the sample were army (13.8%) and police (13.6%), with all other work categories falling far behind.
- Among the girls and young women surveyed, teacher (16%) and doctor (14.8%).
- Most common choices, with police (12.5%) emerging as the third most popular choice
Issues Related to Elementary Education in India
Shortage of Infrastructural facility
- The program of school building development was unable to keep up with the growth of elementary education.
- This is due to financial constraints.
- As a result, plans for instruction have been established in several locations, including public spaces like temples and teacher’s homes, among others.
- Such an institution lacks a playground and an unhealthful atmosphere.
- The expansion of primary education has been seriously hampered by inappropriate facilities and a packed, loud environment.
Social Values
- Traditions and practices rule the lives of society.
- These traditions and practices are some like childmarriage, religious fanaticism and caste- discrimination.
- Although the laws have been made to eradicate these evil practices, yet social practices proved more forceful those laws.
Poverty and Ignorance
- The financial condition of the country is not such as to provide full meals and adequate clothing to every citizen.
- Even now a family of as many as ten members depends for their bread on one of its members.
- The majority of people, being ignorant, do not realize the importance of education.
- Many parents, instead of getting their children admitted in schools, try to introduce them to some trade at a tender age to supplement their income.
Shortage of Funds
- The burden of primary education is being shouldered mostly by local bodies.
- The percentage of financial help for educational purposes to local bodies has been raised from 30 per cent to 33 per cent which is not sufficient.
- Local bodies with their poor financial resources would go on implementing successfully the compulsory primary education scheme.
- 1975 the state governments have been made responsible for paying salaries to primary school teachers.
India has about 688,000 primary schools and 100,000 secondary schools.
Education of Girls
- Special attention because wastage is heavy in his section of the community due to various reasons.
- The enrolment of boys is about 90% of the population in the corresponding age group.
- But the enrolment of girls is much lower.
- The number of girls en rolled for every 100 boys is only 50.
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