ASER or Annual Status of Education Report is an annual report released by the Pratham Foundation. This report aims to provide a better understanding of the education sector in India. 34,745 respondents from 28 rural districts in 26 states back all the data and figures used in the report.
All the respondents were aged between 14 years - 18 years. Data was collected regarding youths’ current activity and their ability to do basic and applied tasks. Special focus was paid to youth access to digital devices and skills to do digital tasks. Youth aspirations about the future were also explored
The ASER report is a very extensive report which laid focuses on getting as honest observations as possible. Respondents were asked questions which were to understand their knowledge of basic Reading, Arithmetic, and English.
➢ Around 86.8% of the students in rural areas aged between 14 - 18 years are enrolled in educational institutions.
➢ People in Rural areas sometimes have some financial problems. Therefore, 30% of the respondents in rural areas are working with their parents to support the family. Sometimes as members of the family grow, it gets difficult to survive with just one single bread earner. As a result, students have to work to support their families.
➢ One out of every four students cannot read the basic 2nd-level text properly in their regional language.
➢ As per the report, the enrollment number of girls is more than that of boys. However, boys do better than girls in Arithmetic and English reading.
➢ More than half of the respondents struggle in dividing a 3-digit number by a 1-digit number and 57% of the respondents can read sentences in English.
➢ ASER also concluded that 90% of the respondents use smartphones. 95% of the boys and 90% of girls use a smartphone. Even in this case, boys outperformed girls in the usage of phones. Also, 80% of people admitted to use phones for entertainment.
These figures show that India has to strengthen its primary and secondary education system a lot. Though these numbers are lower than the international standards, the pace at which these numbers have grown in the last 2-3 years is a very commendable job. Especially after the introduction of the New Education Policy, 2020, many new students have been enrolled in schools.
Many experts say that schemes like “beti bachao beti padhao” and the improvement of school infrastructure have also helped more students get enrolled in schools. However, the numbers have not been sufficient. India has a booming workforce and the country needs to identify such talents and put them to the best of their use. The school infrastructure is also not the best but is usable by the students.
As a country, we need to equip our young people adequately with the essential knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to drive their own progress and that of their families and communities. India’s anticipated “demographic dividend” and “digital dividend” can achieve their full potential if this is done.
This young talent can be molded into anything right now and therefore, adequate steps should be taken by the government to speed up the process of hiring and management of the teachers and necessary infrastructure. China was able to become a manufacturing hub because of having a lot of manpower. It became a manufacturing hub because it had skilled and highly skilled labor. Therefore, necessary steps must be taken to utilize such young minds and to build future assets for the nation.