ASER 2013: Enough of Outlays, Get Started on Outcomes NOW

The ninth Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) was published last week. ASER is an annual household survey to assess children’s schooling (both public and private) status and basic learning levels in reading and arithmetic, among other things. With the number of children surveyed at 569,664 from 15,941 villages of 550 districts, the sample size of ASER is larger than that of the NSS survey rounds.

Some of the important findings of ASER 2013 are:

1. School Enrollment: Enrollment figures for children (age group 6-14) have been 96% or more since 2009, touching 96.7% in 2013. Private school enrollment stood at 29% in 2013. The number has been rising consistently from 18.7% in 2006.
2. School Attendance: School attendance of children varies across the country. Overall, children’s attendance in government school has gone from 74.3% in 2009 to 70.7% in 2013 in primary schools and from 77% in 2009 to 71.8% in 2013 in upper primary schools.
3. School Facilities: Facilities (available and usable) like drinking water, toilets, kitchen shed, library, etc. have been steadily improving over the years. While only 47.2% of government schools had useable toilets in 2010, in 2013 that number stood at 62.6%.

These are encouraging numbers. All these are inputs to achieve one thing and one thing only – providing quality education to children. But this is where the good news ends. The signs of success/failure of whether these efforts have been translating in providing quality education or not can also be found in ASER – in their surveys on learning outcomes.

The most worrying aspect of ASER 2013 continues to be the falling learning outcomes. As the report notes, “For a variety of reasons, close to 78% of children in Std. III and about 50% of children in Std. V cannot read Std. II text as yet. Without immediate and urgent help, these children cannot make progress in the education system. Grade level teaching of the syllabus cannot be done effectively unless the basic skill of reading with understanding is in place. Without this fundamental skill, the child cannot progress in other subjects either.”

The figures below shows the level of reading competency over the last five years for government and private schools separately.

Figure 1: % Children in Std. III who can read at least Std. I level text

Source: ASER 2013, India Findings

Figure 2: % Children in Std. V who can read at least Std. II level text

Source: ASER 2013, India Findings

As is evident from the figures above, the learning levels have consistently been falling in government schools while it is holding steady in private schools. The condition is equally grim when it comes to competency in basic arithmetic, as seen in the figures below.

Re-published with permission from Spontaneous Order