ASER 2023: 27% teens in Hathras, 18% in Varanasi can’t read Class 2 text fluently

Hathras (1541 students) and Varanasi (1531 teens) are the two districts in Uttar Pradesh where the ASER survey was conducted.

Nearly 27% of children in the age group of 14-18 years in Hathras cannot read a Class 2 level text fluently in Hindi, at least 43.2% are unable to read sentences in English and 44.4% cannot perform division, according to the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey released on Wednesday.

In Hathras, about 54% could not calculate time, 73% could not measure length and 46% could not apply the unitary method. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

In Varanasi, 18% of children in the same age group cannot read a Class 2 level text fluently in Hindi, 41.2% are unable to read sentences in English and 46.4% cannot perform division, the same report said.

Hathras (1541 students) and Varanasi (1531 teens) are the two districts in Uttar Pradesh where the ASER survey was conducted. The ASER 2023 report “Beyond Basics”, led by Pratham Foundation, an education-focused non-profit organisation, focussed on youngsters aged 14 to 18 years in rural India by surveying 34,745 students enrolled in both government and private institutes in 28 districts across 26 states.

Of those who could do at least subtraction (ASER arithmetic test), 42% could not do a task for managing a budget, 59% could not apply a discount and 87% could not calculate repayment. Across most of these application-based tasks, males outperformed females, according to the report.

In Varanasi, overall 59% could not calculate time and 62% were unable to measure length. Of those who could read at least a Class 1 level text (ASER reading test), 34.5% could not read the text on a medicine packet and answer at least three out of four questions about it.

Of those who could do at least subtraction (ASER arithmetic test), 37% could not do a task for managing a budget, 60% were unable to apply a discount and 86% could not calculate repayment.