Context:

Recently, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Pratham released the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2024.

Key Highlights of the Report

• The Survey reports that there has been a modest recovery in foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) among school students from the post-pandemic learning losses. 
• However, the majority of children in Classes 3 and 5 are still unable to read a Class 2 level text in their local language or do simple maths problems. 
• It surveyed almost 6.5 lakh children in 605 villages across 29 States and Union Territories and tested them in basic reading and arithmetic skills. 

Reading ability: 

• Only 23.4% of Class 3 students are able to read a Class 2 text which means still 76.6% of Class 3 students were unable to read the texts.
• For Class 5 students, 44.8% of them were able to read a Class 2 text, while 67.5% of Class 8 students were able to read the Class 2 text. 
• The most improved States were Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, and Mizoram which saw at least 10 percentage point hikes in the number of children able to read the Class 2 text.

Lagging in basic arithmetic

• Two out of three Class 3 students were still unable to solve the subtraction problems correctly.
• Only 30.7% students of in class 5, could solve the division problems.
• Among Class 8 students, improvement in basic arithmetic rose marginally from 44.1% in 2018 to 45.8% in 2024. 

Digital literacy

• Among older teenagers aged 14 years to 16 years, 89% have access to smartphones at home and 31.4% possess their own phones.
• About 57% used it for education-related matters and 76% said they browse social media on the phone.
• About 62% knew how to block or report a profile, 55.2% knew how to make a profile private, and 57.7% knew how to change a password.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)

• It is a nationwide citizen-led household survey that provides statistics on children’s schooling and learning in rural India.
• It was first conducted in 2005 and repeated annually for 10 years then in 2016 shifted to an alternate year cycle. This cycle was interrupted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of ASER 2022, done across the country four years after 2018.
• The survey generates district, state, and national level estimates of children’s enrollment status and their basic reading and arithmetic skills.