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Annual Status of Education Report

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January 18, 2018

Why in news?

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2017 has been brought out by NGO Pratham.

What is the report on?

  • Previous ASERs focused on 6-14 year olds and have reached almost all rural districts to make estimates representative at district, State, and national levels.
  • However, ASER 2017 focuses on an older age group i.e. youth who are 14 to 18 years old.
  • Also, it was conducted in 28 districts spread across 24 States and generated only district level estimates.
  • The survey looks 'Beyond Basics', exploring a wider set of domains beyond foundational reading and arithmetic abilities of youth.

What are the highlights?

  • Enrolment - In 14-18 age group, around 14% are not currently enrolled in school or college.
  • However, this number varies a lot with age, ranging from around 5% at age 14 to around 30% at age 18.
  • The low 5% at age 14 is a positive outcome of the compulsory education for 6-14 years under the RTE.
  • The enrolment ratios for boys and girls are almost the same at 14 years.
  • However, at 18 years 32% of girls are not enrolled, as against 28% for boys.
  • There are also discrete differences among States on the number of youth who are not enrolled in appropriate levels of schooling.
  • Knowledge - 14% of rural youth in the age group of 14-18 failed to identify the map of India.
  • A worrying 36% of those surveyed did not know that Delhi is the capital of India.
  • 60-80% of them cannot even tell the time correctly.
  • About 25% of this age group still cannot read basic texts fluently in their own language.
  • 53% of all 14 year-olds in the sample can read English sentences.
  • More than half in the age group struggle with simple division (3 digit by 1 digit) problems.
  • Besides, the report points to a massive digital divide, with poor access to facilities.
  • In this again, girls were worse off in terms of access to computers and the Internet.

What does it imply?

  • Almost 10% of India's population falls in the 14-18 group.
  • Thus the 14% of the un-enrolled population in this translates to a total of 125 million young Indians out of formal education system.
  • The enrolment scenario highlights gender discrimination, with the number of girls falling sharply with age.
  • India's predominantly youth population is seen as a demographic dividend.
  • But the education scenario fall short of capitalising on this factor and deriving an economic dividend.
  • As, a large number of Indian youths lack even basic employability.
  • Successive studies point to progress in raw enrolment of children in school, with poor achievement on learning outcomes.

What should be done?

  • Policy makers must acknowledge that all expenditure on good education is bound to have a multiplier effect on productivity.
  • The right to free and compulsory education must be extended to the 14-18 age group as well, beyond the 6 to 14 at present.
  • Guaranteed inclusion will empower those in the 14-18 age group and help them acquire finishing education.
  • This is so vital for their participation in the workforce, as India lacks trained manpower to boost its manufacturing capabilities.
  • Equipping them with the skills, especially job-oriented vocational capabilities is essential.
  • Learning deficits highlight the need for pedagogic tools that synchronise knowledge with lived realities.
  • Scaling up access to digital facilities by bringing all children under the umbrella of a school, college or training institution is desirable.

 

Source: The Hindu, Indian Express

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