ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) is a citizens’ initiative to understand the status of elementary education in India.  Facilitated by Pratham, 2006 is the second year that ASER is being conducted nationwide.  ASER 2006 covered 549 rural districts.  In each district, 30 villages were selected randomly and 20 households were visited in each village.  In each household, a set of basic questions were asked: Are children in school? Can they read? Can children do simple arithmetic? Can they write a straightforward dictated sentence? Simple tasks were given to children to assess their ability to read, write and do arithmetic.  In all, 15,610 villages, 318,761 households, 313,135 mothers and 758,028 children in the age group 3 to 16 were surveyed in October and November 2006.  

Following a common design and using the same set of tools, ASER was carried out in each district by a local organization.  More than 450 district level organizations and institutions participated in the 2006 effort.  ASER aims to involve a wide cross-section of people who will work in partnership with parents, teachers, administrators and communities to support children to achieve a better educational future.  

ASER 2006 findings indicate that:  

Enrollment: At the age of 4, 68.6% children are enrolled in anganwadi or balwadi /pre-school centres, nationally.  By age 5, the proportion of the age group going to anganwadi/balwadi drops to 38% and the percentage enrolled in Std 1 is 46.6%.  By age 6, school enrollment of children in India is 88.4%.  There is no discernible change in enrollment levels since 2005.

In the 7-10 age group, 95.3% children are enrolled in school.  Among 11-14 year olds, all India enrollment figure is 91.2%.  However states like Rajasthan (19.6%) and Bihar (17.6%), the proportion of girls in 11 - 14 age group who are out of school, is alarmingly high.  

Private schools: Nationally, for the age group 7 to 16, the percentage of children attending private schools in 18.5%.  However in 8 states (Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland), this figure is above 30%.  These states differ in the ratio of aided to unaided schools.  Since 2005, there has been a significant shift in enrollment towards private schools in Punjab, Goa, Haryana and Karnataka. These states recorded shifts of more than 5 percentage points since last year.

Reading and arithmetic: Nationally, 73% of children in Std 1 and 2 can at least recognize alphabets and 59.3% can at least recognize numbers up to 100.  At an all India level, about 53% of children in Std 5 can read a Std 2 level text fluently and only 45.3 % can do a division problem (3 digits by 1 digit) correctly.  

There are wide inter-state variations in children’s ability to read or do basic arithmetic. In Std 1 and 2, over 90% children in Kerala, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Goa can read alphabets. But in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, less than 60% children in Std 1 and 2 can recognize alphabets. For Std 3-5, more than 75% children in Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Goa and Andaman and Nicobar are able to do a two digit subtraction problem correctly.  In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, this figure for class 3 to 5 children is below 55%.

In terms of gains in children’s learning, Madhya Pradesh is the outstanding state of the year.  A quantum leap in children’s basic reading and arithmetic levels has been recorded in ASER 2006 as compared to ASER 2005 with gains of 20-30 percentage points in reading and arithmetic for Std 1 and 2 as well Std 3-5.  This brings MP up from being one of the lowest achievement states in learning in 2005 to just behind Kerala and West Bengal in 2006.  

Comprehension was measured for the first time in ASER 2006.  The data indicates that if a child (at any age or standard) can read Std 2 level text fluently, his or her ability to answer comprehension questions is high.  By Std 4, over 90% of fluent readers are able to answer basic comprehension questions.  Fluent readers’ ability to correctly solve word problems in arithmetic is only limited by children’s ability to do arithmetic operations. This finding underlines the importance of fluent reading as a foundation for any further educational progress.

Mothers and children:  Another new feature of ASER 2006 is the inclusion of mothers in the survey.  Mothers were asked whether they had been to school and to do a simple reading task. The data indicates that children of mothers who have not been to school are themselves more likely to be out of school. 10% of the children of mothers who had no schooling are currently out of school versus 2.5% children of mothers with schooling. Similar disadvantages are visible in children’s learning levels as well.  For example, 25% of the children (age group 6-8) of mothers who did not go to school cannot recognize alphabets as compared to 12.8% children of mothers who did go to school.

The ASER 2006 Rural national report was released on January 5th by Shri. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission in New Delhi. More than 400 people who participated in ASER across the country are expected to attend the release function.

For more information contact Brij Kaul 98732 07198 or aser@pratham.org.  ASER 2006 Rural national report is available on www.pratham.org.

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