Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011

Updated on: Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2011 released on January 16 by Kapil Sibal, Minister of human resource development, has come out with some shocking revelations. In its key findings, while the student enrolment in rural India has seen a rise (96.7%) in the year 2011, there has been a decline in students basic reading levels, arithmetic levels and academic levels.

Student enrolment

The percentage of girls in the age group 11and 14 years who have been out of schools has seen a considerable decrease in 2011. For example, in Bihar, the number of girls out of school has dropped from 17.6% in 2006 to 4.3% in 2011. Rajasthan shows a decline from 18.9% in 2006 to 8.9% in 2011.

Apart from this, enrolment of students in private schools has seen a sharp increase. From 18.7% of children between the age group 6-14 years getting enrolled in private schools in 2006, it is 25.6% in 2011.

Reading levels

Nationally, reading levels are estimated to have declined in many states across north India. The all India figure for the proportion of children in class V able to read a class II level text has dropped from 53.7% in 2010 to 48.2% in 2011. Such declines, however, are not visible in the southern states.

The unsatisfactory levels of basic reading ability suggested by ASER and other studies including PISA point to an urgent need to focus on basic learning outcomes. Each state should define realistic, measurable outcomes in reading and understanding that can be understood by teachers and parents. The RTE states that childrens progress has to be communicated to parents. Textbook content too, needs to be reviewed.

Arithmetic levels

Basic arithmetic levels estimated in ASER 2011 also show a decline. Nationally, the proportion of class III children able to solve a two-digit subtraction problem with borrowing has dropped from 36.3% in 2010 to 29.9% in 2011. Among children of class V, the ability to do a similar subtraction problem has dropped from 70.9% in 2010 to 61% in 2011. This decline is visible in almost every state; only Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu show improvements in 2011.

Childrens attendance

At the all India level, childrens attendance shows a decline from 73.4% in 2007 to 70.9% in 2011 in rural primary schools. In some states, childrens attendance shows a sharp decline over time. For example, in primary schools of Bihar, the average attendance of children was 59% in 2007, but down to 50% in 2011. In Madhya Pradesh, this figure has fallen from 67% in 2007 to 54.5% in 2011, while in Uttar Pradesh, from 64.4% (2007) to 57.3% (2011).

Multigrade classrooms

Multiple classes sitting together are a real challenge in Indian classrooms. During the school visits, ASER focused on class II and class IV to observe whether children in these classes were sitting together with children from other classes. Nationally, for rural government primary schools, data suggested that over half of all classes visited were multigrade.

Facilitated by Pratham, ASER is an annual survey of children in rural India and has completed seven years. It is undertaken by local organisations and concerned citizens

Times of India

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011

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