Autar Nehru (Delhi) The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) published every year by the independent not-for-profit Pratham Education Foundation (estb.1995) usually field tests primary school (classes I-VIII) children in rural India to measure their real learning outcomes. An army of over 1 lakh volunteers — mainly college and university students — test the reading and maths capabilities of children in household, not school/classroom, surveys. As such the annual ASER survey has acquired an excellent reputation for independent reporting which is respected by government and the establishment, including the academy for providing an accurate picture of learning outcomes of primary school children in rural India which hosts 60 percent of the country’s 1.4 billion citizens. This, despite ASER painting a dismal picture of children’s learning attainments year after year. In 2017, the Pratham management broke with tradition to examine the learning outcomes of a representative batch of teenage secondary and higher students. ASER 2023 released on January 17 in Delhi, again reports on the learning outcomes of rural teens in the 14-18 age group whose learning was severely impacted by the prolonged (82 weeks) closure of K-12 education because of the Covid-19 pandemic. ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ explores four key domains — academic capability, awareness and digital aptitude, and aspirations of a sample size of 34,745 teens drawn from 28 districts in 26 major states across the country. The survey work began in March 2023, was completed by July and the report was prepared in December. The representative sample youth was tested in basic reading, math and English capability; ability to do everyday math calculations; reading and understanding written instructions. Unsurprising but still shocking, ASER 2023 confirms that a sizeable proportion of our secondary students do not have basic reading and numeracy skills. Over 25 percent (26.4) of teens in the 14-18 age group can’t read a class II text in their regional language (cf. 23.4 percent in 2017). In arithmetic, 43.3 percent can’t do a simple division sum (39.5 percent in 2017) indicating that learning outcomes of teens have declined because schools were shuttered during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-21). More bad news. Over 40 percent (42.7) can’t read a sentence in English. Moreover while 85 percent of surveyed youth can measure length using a scale when the starting point is 0 cm, when the starting point was moved, only 39 percent could. Overall, close to 50 percent senior and higher secondary students casually promoted year after year, can’t manage common tasks such as calculating time, adding weights and calculating discounts and repayments. The possibility of their being routinely short-changed and swindled by rural retailers and moneylenders is huge. The only silver lining of this unhappy picture is that children — even rural children in this age group — are digitally savvy. Smartphone penetration into rural India is enabling India’s youth to self-learn. ASER 2023 reports that almost 90 percent of teens have access to a smartphone in the household and know how to use it. Almost all youth (90.5…
