Hyderabad: The enrollment in Early Child Education in rural India is rising even as reading and arithmetic skills of children have improved in government as well as private schools, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 has revealed.
The ASER 2024, a nationwide rural household survey, which analysed 649,491 children in 17,997 villages across 605 rural districts in India, was released by co-founders Dr Madhav Chavan and Farida Lambay on Tuesday. Facilitated by Pratham, the survey was conducted by a local organisation in each surveyed district.
Enrollment
As per the ASER 2024, major shifts are seen in levels and patterns of enrollment among children in the pre-primary age group. Among children aged 3-5 years, enrollment in some type of pre-primary institution (Anganwadi centre, government pre-primary class, or private LKG/UKG) has improved steadily between 2018 and 2024, the report said. Among 3-year-olds, enrollment in pre-primary institutions increased from 68.1% in 2018 to 75.8% in 2022 to 77.4% in 2024, it added.
Among states, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Telangana have achieved near-universal enrollment for this age group. On the other hand, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh have the highest proportion of 3-year-olds not enrolled anywhere (over 50%).
Among 4-year-olds, the All-India figure for enrollment in pre-primary institutions increased from 76% in 2018 to 82% in 2022 to 83.3% in 2024. In 2024, enrollment rates in pre-primary for this age exceeded 95% in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha.
Among 5-year-olds, this figure also showed big increases, rising from 58.5% in 2018 to 62.2% in 2022 to 71.4% in 2024. The states with enrollment exceeding 90% in pre-primary institutions for this age include Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Nagaland.
Reading
As per the ASER 2024, reading levels have improved for children in government schools in all elementary grades (Standard I-VIII) since 2022.
The ASER reading task assesses whether a child can read letters, words, a simple paragraph at Std I level of difficulty, or a “story” at Std II level of difficulty. In the sampled household, these tasks are administered one-on-one to each sampled child in the 5-16 age group. The child is marked at the highest level that she or he can reach comfortably.
The assessment method has remained the same since 2006, enabling comparisons over time.
Arithmetic
Likewise, the children’s basic arithmetic levels also show substantial improvement in both government and private schools, reaching the highest level in over a decade, as per the ASER 2024.
The ASER arithmetic tasks assess whether a child can recognise numbers from 1 to 9, recognise numbers from 11 to 99, do a 2-digit numerical subtraction problem with borrowing, or correctly solve a numerical division problem (3-digit by 1-digit).
In the sampled household, these tasks are administered one-on-one to each sampled child in the 5-16 age group. The child is marked at the highest level that she or he can reach comfortably. The assessment method has remained the same since 2006, enabling comparisons over time.
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