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AA Edit | More kids in school, but ASER flags issues to ‘fix’

ASER 2024 highlights enrolment growth, digital learning gains, and gaps in government school quality and fund use

There are few Ed-tech start-ups that encourage digital learning to enhance student's learning curve. (Photo: Pixabay)There are few Ed-tech start-ups that encourage digital learning to enhance student's learning curve. (Photo: Pixabay)

The findings of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024, brought out by a non-governmental organisation, with the help of state government agencies and educationists, have come out as a mixed bag. While it paints a rosy picture of the progress the nation has made towards educating its children, it also points at certain major lapses and holes which the governments need to check and plug. Findings in the report also support the demand for higher governmental involvement in education, especially at the lower level.

The most encouraging part of the report is that enrolment of children aged 3-5 years at the pre-primary level has gone up steadily between 2018 and 2024. The figure for the three-year-olds has gone up from 68.1 per cent to 75.8 per cent and some states, such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana, have achieved near-universal enrolment. The figures have gone up in other age groups as well. Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Nagaland have enrolment exceeding 90 per cent in pre-primary institutions.

The study brings to light an important result that governmental interventions in education have made happen over the decades: Anganwadi centres remain the go-to place for Indian children in the pre-primary age group and they serve more than half of all children aged between three and four years. It may be remembered that the low-profile Anganwadis are not just educational institutions; they are also the route through which the government makes several interventions, including in healthcare and nutrition, to ensure that the children access all-round development. However, parliamentary standing committees on women and children development have noticed that there is underutilisation of funds allotted to the ministry concerned. It only points to poor understanding of the needs of the sector and ineffective implementation of programmes. Given the attention children in this age group deserve, the government needs to look at these lapses immediately and correct them.

It was widely feared that Covid-19 pandemic was a disruptor in education, especially for the poorer sections of society. It now transpires that technology has helped those children continue with their education. Access to gadgets, their use and digital skills have all reported positive trends. True, only half of the children aged between 14 and 16 years use smartphones for education, but they offer a ready channel through which quality education can reach an otherwise neglected section of the population. Technology has indeed proved to be the great leveller.

One important trend that the survey has spotlighted is that children who have left private schools and joined government-owned ones during the pandemic have reversed their choice once the threat vanished. The pandemic made education of their wards in private schools unaffordable for many parents but they revised their choice as soon as they got the chance. This could be a reflection on the quality of education and infrastructure in government schools. Private education is here to stay but the Union and state governments which spend precious resources running schools must introspect why those become a second choice for the most important category of people they intend to serve — the students.

The report is a reminder that the nation must provide not only its resources but also political will in a more focused manner on educating its children if it pins its growth prospects on the so-called demographic dividend.

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