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Arithmetic Skills in Schools Improve by 30% as Government Initiatives Show Results: ASER 2024

The ASER 2024 report reveals a 30% rise in arithmetic skills among Grade 3 students, with reading proficiency also improving. The NIPUN Bharat Mission and government funding of ₹9,235 crore under Samagra Shiksha have played a key role. Meanwhile, private school enrollments have returned to 2018 levels.
 
Arithmetic Skills in Schools Improve by 30% as Government Initiatives Show Results: ASER 2024

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024, released on Tuesday, highlights notable improvements in students' arithmetic and reading skills. The report shows a significant increase in foundational learning levels, particularly among Grade 3 students in government schools.

ASER 2024 revealed that for Grade 3 students, the percentage of readers for Grade 2 text has increased by 43% from 16.3% in 2022 to 23.4% in 2024. The former represents recovery from learning losses sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic, at which point reading proficiency had dived to 20.9% in 2018.

The improvement in arithmetic skills is also remarkable, with 30% improvement; the proportion of Grade 3 students who could do simple subtraction increased from 25.9% in 2021 to 33.7% in 2024.

Government Initiatives Driving the Progress

The NIPUN Bharat Mission is a National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy, which has helped in achieving these results. The initiative was launched in 2021, and the goal is to ensure that all children acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills by the end of Grade 2.

With this goal in mind, the government allocated ₹9,235 crore under the Samagra Shiksha framework between 2021 and 2025. Of this, over ₹2,000 crore annually was spent on training teachers, assessing students, and providing high-quality learning materials.

Private School Enrollments Return to Pre-COVID Levels

The ASER 2024 further brings out a change in enrollment trends in government and private schools. During the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial crunch culminated in government schools' enrollment spiking from its 2018 level of 65.6% to 72.9% in 2022. However, it reverses to enroll at 66.8% in 2024, bringing the numbers back to pre-pandemic levels.

Private school enrollments, which had been increasing since 2006, declined temporarily during the pandemic but have since stabilized. The percentage of children aged 6-14 enrolled in private schools increased from 18.7% in 2006 to 30.8% in 2014 and remained stable in 2018.

Digital Literacy Assessment Introduced for the First Time

ASER 2024 is the first edition to contain a digital literacy component for students between the ages of 14 and 16 years. It gauged access, possession, and use of smartphones by examining self-reported responses and actual skill practice.

ASER 2024: An Education Survey Across the Nation

According to this ASER 2024, it had assessed 6,49,491 children from 17,997 villages spread across 605 rural districts in India. Carried out by the NGO Pratham, this survey collected its data through the medium of local institutions and groups.

With learning recovery gaining momentum and private school enrollments stabilizing, the ASER 2024 report offers valuable insights into the post-pandemic education landscape in India.

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