25% teens in age group 14-18 can’t read grade 2 text fluently: ASER report
While nearly 85% of the surveyed youth can measure length using a scale when the starting point is 0 cm, the proportion drops to 39% when the starting point is moved
New Delhi: Nearly a quarter of teens in the age group 14-18 years cannot read a grade 2nd level text fluently in their regional languages, and at least 42.7% cannot read sentences in English, according to the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey released on Wednesday.
The ASER 2023 report titled “beyond basics”, led by Pratham Foundation, an education-focussed non-profit, puts the spotlight on youth aged 14 to 18 years in rural India by surveying 34,745 youth enrolled in both government and private institutes in 28 districts across 26 states. Last time, this particular age group was covered in the ASER report was in 2017.
According to the report, overall 86.8% among 14-18 year olds are enrolled in either school or college while the enrollment percentage drops with age. For instance, the proportion of youth who are currently not enrolled in school or college rises with age from 3.9% of 14-year-olds to 10.9% of 16-year-olds and 32.6% of 18-year-olds, the report highlighted.
Noting that one of the major worries at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic was that with livelihoods being threatened, older children would drop out of school, the report highlights that the fear “turned out to be unfounded”. “The proportion of out-of-school children and youth has been secularly declining, led by the government’s push to universalise secondary education,” it stated.
However, the reported highlighted that while young people remain in school longer, there’s no significant change in their foundational literacy and numeracy skills (FLN).
In 2017, 76.6% of 14-18- year-olds could read a grade 2-level text, while in 2023, this number is slightly lower at 73.6%. In arithmetic, in 2017, 39.5% of youth could do a simple (grade 3-4 level) division problem, while in 2023, this proportion is slightly higher at 43.3%. “More than half struggle with division (3-digit by 1-digit) problems. Only 43.3% of 14-18-year olds are able to do such problems correctly. This skill is usually expected in class III/IV,” the report found.
In terms of calculation, the report highlighted that while nearly 85% of the surveyed youth can measure length using a scale when the starting point is 0 cm, the proportion drops sharply to 39% when the starting point is moved.
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In gender-wise comparison, female students (76%) do better than males (70.9%) in reading grade 2nd level text in their regional language, while in contrast, male students do better than their female counterparts in arithmetic and reading English text.
Noting that a sizeable proportion of our youth do not have basic reading and numeracy skills, the report stated: “Of course, if a student has progressed through the school system without acquiring these foundational abilities, they are unlikely to acquire them later since teachers follow the grade curriculum and assume that students in their grade have met the requirements of the previous grade.”
For the first time, the ASER also recorded the course stream of students enrolled in grades 11 and 12 and in college. In class 11 and 12, 54% are enrolled in arts and humanities, 9.3% in commerce and 33.7% in science. Analysing the gender aspect of the steam divide, the report stated that female students are less likely to be enrolled in the STEM stream (28.1%) than males (36.3%).
The report further highlighted that students who are enrolled in science in grades 11 and 12 are high performers in grade 9 so as to have been selected into the science stream, and are therefore more likely to be at grade level.
“Not surprisingly, among these students, 92.8% were able to read a Std II level text and 69.7% could do the division problem. This further underscores the point that FLN deficits need to be corrected at the time they occur, otherwise learning deficits just accumulate as students are confronted with higher level competencies as they advance through the school system,” it stated.
The survey also mapped the digital awareness of students and highlighted that 90% of all youth have a smartphone in the household and know how to use it. “Of those who can use a smartphone, males (43.7%) are more than twice as likely to have their own smartphone than females (19.8%). Females are less likely to know how to use a smartphone or computer as compared to males,” it highlighted.
Among youth who can use a smartphone, two-thirds report having used it for some education-related activity during the reference week, such as watching online videos related to studies, solving doubts, or exchanging notes. “Close to 80% of the youth report having used their smartphone to do an entertainment related activity, such as watching a movie or listening to music, during the reference week,” the report stated.