ASER report 2019: More girls in govt schools, boys in private schools

Parents prefer to send boys to private schools while government schools are the first choice for girls.

This and many more enrolment patterns of school children have been brought to light in the fourteenth Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2019) released on Tuesday.

The report, based on survey conducted in 26 districts across 24 states in India covering over 36,000 children in the age group of 4-8 years, points out that more girls are enrolled in government pre-schools and schools while more boys dominate the enrolment in private schools.

For age 4-5 years, against 56.8% girls enrolled in government schools, there were only 50.4% boys. This was just opposite in private institutions where against 49.6% boys there were 43.2% girls for the children of same age. Similarly, for age 6 to 8 years, some 61.1% girls were enrolled in government schools against 52.1% boys. Whereas in private schools 47.9% boys go to private schools against 39% girls indicating that parents prefer private school for boys and government schools for their daughters.

Across this entire age group, more girls are enrolled in government pre-schools and schools and more boys are enrolled in private LKG/UKG and private schools.

For age 4-5, government institutions largely refer to anganwadis and private institutions refer to private preschools (LKG/UKG).

For age 6-8, government institutions refers to government school and private to private pre-schools and schools.

The situation in Uttar Pradesh government run primary and upper primary school is no different either.

In the academic session 2019-20, out of 1,60,11,629 (16 million) total enrolled in government schools 81,58,073 (8.1 million) are girls and 78,53,556 (7.8) are boys. In the year 2018-19, out of total enrolled 1,57,45,999 (1.57 million) students, there were 80,27,296 (8 million) were girls and 77,18,703 (7.7 million) were boys.

Older children do better than younger ones

The survey also shows that older children do better than younger children. About half of all 7 and 8-year-olds can do a 1-digit numerical subtraction problem correctly.

Std I children do better on numerical tasks as compared to oral word problems irrespective of age. Children’s foundational skills improve in each subsequent grade. But even by Std III, a substantial percentage of all children are well behind where they are expected to be by end of Std I. The survey recommends that there is a need for more “talk” and “discussion” in early grades so that children learn to apply what they know.

Mothers’ schooling level is highly correlated

Mothers’ schooling level is highly correlated with where are young children are enrolled. Children whose mothers have 8 or less years of schooling are more likely to be enrolled in anganwadis and government schools as compared to children whose mothers have studied further. Children’s performance on tasks in all domains is positively related to their mother’s education level.