ASER 2024 report shows recovery in rural education
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Source: The post ASER 2024 report shows recovery in rural education has been created, based on the article “ASER report brings good news — classrooms have recovered post Covid” published in “Indian Express” on 29th January 2025

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper2- Governance-Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education.

Context: The article discusses the ASER 2024 report on children’s learning in rural India. It shows a full recovery from post-pandemic learning losses. Government schools have improved the most. The National Education Policy 2020 has helped strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy across states.

For detailed information on Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 read this article here

What Does the ASER 2024 Report Reveal?

  1. Recovery in Reading Skills:
  • There’s a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels among Class III students, with 27.1% now able to read at Class II level, up from 20.5% in 2022.
  • Class V students show similar recovery trends, with 48.8% capable of reading Class II level texts, nearly returning to the 50.5% mark of 2018.
  1. Improvement in Arithmetic:
  • The proportion of Class III students capable of doing subtraction has increased to 33.7% in 2024, the highest in a decade.
  • For Class V, those able to do division rose to 30.7% in 2024, showing significant improvement.
  1. Government Schools Leading Recovery:
  • Government schools have outperformed private schools, particularly in arithmetic, where Class III subtraction skills increased by 36.6% between 2022 and 2024.
  1. Role of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020:
  • The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 played a major role. It focused on foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN). Unlike past programs, this is the first nationwide push for improving learning outcomes.
  1. State-Specific Progress:
  • Almost all states improved compared to 2022. Low-performing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu showed remarkable progress. For example, Uttar Pradesh- Class III reading at Class II level rose from 6% (2014) to 27.9% (2024).
  • High-performing states like Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra also recovered from pandemic losses. In these states, learning levels in Class III government schools had dropped by half in 2022 but have now improved.

What Is the Overall Impact?

The overall impact is positive, showing that concerted efforts under the NEP 2020 across various states are enhancing foundational literacy and numeracy among primary school children, setting a foundation for future educational achievements.

Question for practice:

Examine how the ASER 2024 report highlights the role of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in improving foundational literacy and numeracy in rural India.


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