The basic arithmetic levels of children have shown an substantial improvement in both government and private schools in India, reaching the highest level in over a decade. This has been revealed in the latest version of the Annual Status of Education Report or ASER 2024.
Arithmetic skills:
ASER 2024, which has been released on Tuesday, January 28, informed that the arithmetic capabilities of the elementary age group, comprising of children aged 6 to 14 years, have improved substantially since 2018.
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For instance, the All-India figure for children in Class 3 who can at least do one numerical subtraction problem was 28.2% in 2018 and 25.9% in 2022. This figure in 2024 has increased to 33.7% .
Among government school students, this figure went from 20.9% in 2018 to 27.6% in 2024. Whereas private school students showed a relatively smaller improvement since 2022.
Furthermore, as per the report, government schools across most states have shown gains since 2022, with over 15 percentage increases recorded in states like Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
Likewise for Class 5 students, the proportion of children who can at least do a numerical division problem has also improved. The figure was 27.9% in 2018, 25.6% in 2022 and increased to 30.7% in 2024.
This change also driven mainly by government schools. with states like Punjab and Uttarakhand showing the most improvement, gaining more than 10 percentage points in government schools.
However, in Class 8, the performance of students in basic arithmetic remained similar to earlier levels, going from 44.1% in 2018 to 44.7% in 2022 to 45.8% in 2024.
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Reading capabilities:
In terms of reading capabilities of children in the elementary group, the All-India figures also indicate improvement in government schools since 2022.
In Class 3, the basic reading levels for children enrolled in government schools in 2024 are the highest that they have been since the inception of the ASER survey.
The percentage of Standard III children able to at least read Standard II level text was 20.9% in 2018. The figure dropped to 16.3% in 2022, but increased to 23.4% in 2024, the report said.
“States with more than a 10 percentage point increase in this proportion between 2022 and 2024 in government schools include Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, and Maharashtra,” added the report.
In Class 5, reading levels improved substantially especially for those enrolled in government schools.
According to the report, “the proportion of Std V children in government schools who can read a Std II level text fell from 44.2% in 2018 to 38.5% in 2022 and then recovered to 44.8% in 2024.”
It added, “Small improvements are also seen in reading levels for Std V children in private schools, which fell from 65.1% in 2018 to 56.8% in 2022 and increased to 59.3% in 2024.”
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Mizoram had the highest proportions of Grade 5 children in government schools who are able to read 2 level text, with 64.9% and 64.8% respectively.
Additionally, states with over a 10 percentage point increase in this proportion in government schools include Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, in Class 8, reading levels increased among children enrolled in government schools. In 2018, it was 69%, falling to 66.2% in 2022. In 2024, the figure rose to 67.5%.
The report stated that the performance of private school students remained unchanged between 2022 and 2024.
Government schools in states such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Sikkim show notable improvements.
However, declines were observed in states like Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
