ASER Report 2024: Rural India Shows Recovery From Post-Pandemic Educational Losses

🅺India had one of the longest school closures in the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools were shut for 82 weeks—or 574 days—between March 2020 and October 2021; second only to Uganda, which had closures for 83 weeks according to a United Nations report. This lengthy closure had an adverse impact especially for impoverished students, who had no access to digital learning. In rural areas, attending school often meant sacrificing work on family farms or in local shops, and financial hardship during the pandemic raised fears that many parents might not send their children back to school.

However, the shows more than a full recovery from post-pandemic learning losses. The ASER is an annual citizen-led household survey that aims to assess whether children in rural India are enrolled in school and learning effectively. A rural household survey, conducted by the non-profit organisation Pratham😼, which included 6,49,491 children in 605 rural districts, served as the basis for the report.

🍸The nationwide survey showed that learning levels in primary grades are higher than past levels in some cases. At the All-India level, the proportion of children in Std III who are able to read at Std II level rose from 23.6 per cent in 2014 to 27.3 per cent in 2018 but fell to 20.5 per cent in 2022. In 2024, this proportion has recovered to 27.1 per cent. A similar pattern is seen in Std V, where the proportion of children who can read a Std II level text rose from 48 per cent in 2014 to 50.5 per cent in 2018, dropped to 42.8 per cent in 2022, and then recovered to 48.8 per cent in 2024.

𒆙In arithmetic, the learning loss post-pandemic in 2022 was smaller compared to reading. The proportion of children in Std III able to do at least subtraction rose from 25.4 per cent in 2014 to 28.2 per cent in 2018 and dropped to 25.9 per cent in 2022. In 2024, this proportion stands at 33.7 per cent in 2024, the highest level in the last decade.

🐓What is remarkable about this recovery is that it is completely driven by government schools. In rural India, government schools have always lagged behind private schools in learning levels. The ASER data shows that while learning levels in private schools are still below their pre-pandemic levels, government schools have performed better than 2018 levels.

ꦬASER records improvements in learning levels not seen in the last 20 years. What has led to this sudden improvement in learning levels? The findings of the report point to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and its focus on foundational skills. While this is not the first time that programmes have been introduced to improve learning, what is different is that it is the first time that there has been a systemic national push to improve foundational learning outcomes. Almost all states have shown improvements as compared to 2022. In fact, the low-performing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu have made a remarkable recovery.

ꦫRegarding enrollment, post pandemic, the proportion of children aged 6-14 not enrolled in school is 1.9 per cent, slightly above the 2022 figure of 1.6 per cent. The proportion of 11–14-year-olds who are currently not enrolled has continued to fall, and now stands at about 2 per cent — only slightly above the 2022 figure of 1.8 per cent. The proportion of 15-16-year-olds not enrolled has decreased from 16.1 per cent in 2010 to 7.9 per cent in 2024.

🧸The increase in government school enrollment seen during the COVID-19 years seems to have reversed. During the pandemic years, there was a big jump in government school enrollment, with the proportion of 6–14-year-old children enrolled in government schools rising from 65.6 per cent in 2018 to 72.9 per cent in 2022. This number is back to 66.8 per cent in 2024. This seems to confirm that the increase in government school enrollment observed during the COVID years was driven more by necessity rather than by choice.

🌺The report also found an increase in smartphone ownership in rural India, which rose from 49.7 per cent in 2022 to 74.8 per cent in 2024. However, digital learning has not significantly improved educational outcomes. Foundational skills in reading and arithmetic still rely on physical classroom learning.

(Inputs from ASER Report 2024)