Survey to study status of primary education

To assess the status of primary education in India, a nationwide survey - 'the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)' is being conducted. The survey is also being held to find out if every child in India is in school and learning well.

Initiated by Pratham, an NGO working in the field of primary education, ASER will survey 12,000 villages in 525 districts covering six lakh children. The results of the effort will be published in a national report that will assess the status of primary education in India. The Annual Status of Education Report 2005 will be released in the third week of January 2006.

Addressing a press meet here on Friday, Rohini Nilekani, chairperson of Akshara Foundation and member of Pratham's board of trustees, said between November 11 and December 18, volunteers will visit 20 randomly picked villages in each district across the country. They will then survey 20 randomly chosen households in each village.

"In each household, children in the age group of 6-14 years will be interviewed and tested for basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills on a one-to-one basis. The testing tools, which facilitate rapid evaluation have been devised by Pratham and tested on a large scale in different parts of the country," she added.

The survey is part of the nationwide effort led and supported by NGOs, institutions, people?s organisations and individuals to conduct a district-by-district survey of the country. In Karnataka, it has been lead by Pratham's partner Akshara Foundation together with partners like India Literacy Project, the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) and others. Akshara is to coordinate the survey in all the 27 districts in Karnataka to measure the status of primary education in Karnataka covering 540 villages and 27,000 children.

ASER will ask simple questions and provide answers that can be understood by everybody. Do children have a school? Can children read? Can they write? Can they do basic arithmetic? Are there teachers in schools? Are enrolled children attending school? Based on the answers, ASER will rank states and districts every year for the next five years until 2010 - the deadline for achieving quality universal elementary education.

Following the 2005 report, the district and state level groups will interact with state and district governments.

ASER 2005 is expected to become a tool in the hands of people so that they can monitor, and help improve the status of education around them.

"ASER is essentially a citizen's audit that will gather information relevant to people on the impact of government spending on primary education. We believe while the government does plenty of work in the area, we the people must partner the government to ensure successful outcomes. When people are better informed, they ask better questions and the system has to calibrate its response accordingly. This we must do for the young citizens of India," said Rohini Nilekani.

"Without the active participation of citizens of this country whether it is through funding or volunteering, ASER cannot be a success," she added.

ASER is being financed through small contributions from a large number of people. A contribution of Rs 500 will cover the survey expenses for one village and Rs 10,000 will cover one district. Each contribution will be acknowledged in the report to be released in January 2006.