Children have suffered significantly because of the pandemic. In the years when they should have been able to learn in classrooms and labs, and play outside, they did everything on their parents’ smartphones. The latest Annual Status of Education Report of 2021 (ASER 2021) throws light on the status of school reopening in rural India, and the quality of learning in rural homes.
The report finds that some states have still not reopened secondary schools. For primary schools, the caution has been considerably higher: Nearly 13 among 25 states have still kept schools shut for kids in Classes 1-3 (chart 1).