The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 confirms the unprecedented learning poverty due to Covid.
What is ASER Report?
The 17th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 was released by the NGO Pratham after 4 years.
It is a household survey conducted for children in the age group of 3 to 16 years to record their schooling status and assess their basic reading and arithmetic skills.
The 17th ASER covered across 616 rural districts and covers 6 .9 lakh children in the age group of 3 to 6 years.
It records the impact of school closures in 2020 and 2021, as well as the return to school of children in 2022.
What are the initiatives of the government?
Government schools in most States have become the place of children from vulnerable social groups, where the parents have limited incomes.
Improving a government school is the most pro-poor activity that any State can undertake.
Mission Kayakalpa – Uttar Pradesh’s ‘Mission Kayakalpa’ for making schools attractive and an inviting place once again, is a great example to follow.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – To universalise elementary education
While a lot has been done to improve the schools on the supply side with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, there is a need for rejuvenating and re-imagining learning in schools.
ASER 2023 confirms that boys and girls of elementary school going age have all come back to schools.
How can impactful outcomes of learning be ensured in schools?
Local governments – Local governments & women’s collectives should be given the responsibility for elementary schools with funds and functionaries.
The school should become a community institution rather than be a government entity.
Training to use gadgets – All teachers should be trained in the use of gadgets and course material that can facilitate learning.
Every classroom must have a large TV and a good sound system to provide online lessons that supplement what is taught in class.
Mid-Day-Meal Programme – The Mid-Day Meal responsibility must be handed over to the village level self-help group (SHG) of women.
Teachers should not have any role in the Mid-Day Meal scheme and they must only teach.
Public libraries – Libraries should be developed where older children in the village can study and prepare for jobs and admissions to good institutions.
Infrastructure – Sound boxes, video films, play-way learning items, indoor and outdoor sports, cultural activities for learning on scale, should be used.
Nutrition – Field functionaries like Aanganwadi Sevikas, Ashas, ANMs and Panchayat Secretaries must all be made responsible for the well-being of children.
Community Campaigns – There should be community campaigns and regular school level interactions with parents.
Teachers must build a relationship with every household to ensure children’s care and learning.
Grants – The Central and State grants be disaggregated gram panchayat-wise and urban local body-wise, to ensure transfer of untied funds to schools, including salary payment.
The Central/State governments equally share the additional resources needed to rejuvenate the system, given that education is a Concurrent subject 1976 onwards.
What is the way forward?
Making learning attractive for children is possible today with little effort.
The Nipun Bharat Mission to ensure oral and written literacy and numeracy, should become a people’s movement like the Total Literacy Campaign.
