Annual survey shows evidence of improving primary education in govt schools

But annual ASER survey also underlines a continued fall in abilities at Class VIII

For the first time since free school education was made a legal right, reading abilities of those attending Class V in government schools have improved. And, their basic mathematical abilities have started growing faster, shows the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for 2018.

Abilities at the level of Class III have been rising since the inception of ASER surveys but this is the first big improvement observed at Class V, the report said. However, basic reading and mathematics abilities of children in Class VIII continue to slowly decline, it shows.

The proportion of government school children in Class V who could read a Class II-level text declined from 53.1 per cent in 2008 to 41.7 per cent in 2016. It has risen to 44.2 per cent in 2018. But, for Class VIII children attending government schools, the same ability has continued its decline, from 83.6 per cent a decade before to 69 per cent in 2018.

However, the learning outcomes of students in Indian schools still remain abysmal. Only 27.3 per cent of them in Class III can read a Class II text, suggesting they are not fully ready for Class III. The performance varies from 20.9 per cent in government schools to 40.6 per cent in private schools. The number is similar when it comes to being able to subtract and divide numbers at the Class III and Class V levels.

In private schools, reading and maths abilities for children at both class V and VIII have shown improvement. But, as a result of improvement in government schools, “the gap between the two seems to have stabilised”, the report said.

Another finding of the survey shows the proportion of private schools among all schools has plateaued at nearly 31 per cent. This should be looked at in consonance with the fact that the overall schoolgoing age population in India has plateaued. The trend of falling learning outcomes of children in school after the enactment of The Right to Education (RTE) Act in 2008, known till now, is showing the first sign of a reversal, the report said. Though the RTE increased the national primary school enrolment to above 95 per cent, it also brought many children to school for the first time, who could not catch up with the learning abilities required at a particular level, say Class II. “Over time, as these children caught up and progressed through the system, we would expect learning levels to start rising,” Wilima Wadhwa, director at the ASER Centre, said in the report.

There is a heartening trend on gender parity, with the proportion of girls in the age group of 11-14 years staying out of school having declined from 10.3 per cent in 2006 to six per cent in 2010 and to 4.1 per cent in 2018.

Around 36.8 per cent of girls in the 8-10 years age group could read a Class II text in 2018, while 33.2 per cent of boys could. In the 14-16 age group, the proportion becomes equal for both boys and girls at 76.9 per cent.

In terms of mathematical abilities, boys still outperform girls across age groups.

The survey shows use of mobile phones has risen in households but the proportion of homes with supplementary reading material has reduced. Households with mobile phones rose from 64.8 per cent in 2010 to 90.2 per cent in 2018. Those with other reading material such as magazines and books other than textbooks rose from 15.9 per cent in 2010 to 23.3 per cent in 2014, only to reduce to 20.6 per cent in 2016. And, plummeted to 6.6 per cent in 2018.