Key Findings of ASER 2017

Enrollment & Drop-Out

• The RTE Act covers mandatory and free schooling up until the age of 14, or roughly grade 8. ASER surveys show that enrolment in grade 8 has been steadily increasing from less than 50% in 2005-06 to close to 90% in 2014-15.
• Another important issue is analysing how enrolment rates develop after grade 8, or once students are no longer under the purview of the RTE Act. Looking at the 2011-12 grade 8 cohort, the findings show about a one-third decline until grade 12, indicative of a trend of increasing dropout rates after grade 8.
• Another startling fact is that about 17% of students dropped out because they failed in their studies. Current government policy doesn’t allow schools to fail students until grade 8. As the ASER report points out, while the intention of the policy is commendable, there need to be measures in place to identify and focus on students who have fallen behind in the earlier grades.

Urban-Rural Gap is Disappearing

The urban-rural gap is rapidly disappearing when it comes to 18 year olds enrolled in some educational program. Where the 2001 Census found only 26% of rural 18 year olds thus enrolled, that number had risen to 44% in the 2011 Census and the 2017 ASER report estimates it to be 70%.

Children Engaged in Works

• Nearly 42% of youth in the age bracket of 14-18 are working, regardless of whether they are enrolled in formal education or not.
• Out of those who work, 79% work in agriculture. Also, more than three quarters of all youth do household chores daily – this figure is 77% males and 89% in females.

Gender Divide in Enrollment

• The report indicated parity between girls and boys on school enrollment. Such parity is more or less maintained at age 14.
• However, by age 18, there are 4.3% more girls than boys who are not enrolled in the formal education system.

Learning Outcome

• Though their ability to read in regional languages and English seems to improve with age, the same does not apply to math.
• The proportion of youth who have not acquired basic math skills by age 14 is the same as that of 18-year-olds.
• One of the tasks given was ‘adding weights’. The youth surveyed were shown a picture of weights — 1 kg, 5 gm, 50 gm, 500 gm, 200 gm, 200 gm — and asked how much this adds to in kilogram. Almost half of those surveyed — 44% — got it wrong. Even among those with basic arithmetic skills, only 76% answered right.
• The report said that 25% in the 14-18 age groups still cannot read basic text fluently in their own language, 57% of them struggle to solve a simple sum of mathematical division.
• As for English, 53 % of the 14-year-olds can read the language.
• Even more shockingly, 14% of the respondents couldn’t identify the map of India, 36% couldn’t name the country’s capital and 21% did not know the state they live in.