Annual Status of Education Report 2024 Key Findings

Context: The Annual Status of Education Report 2024 was recently released. The report highlights significant improvements in learning outcomes, particularly in government schools, and attributes much of this progress to the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

The recently released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 has highlighted a significant transformation in maternal education levels across rural India over the past eight years.

Key Findings of ASER Report 2024

Overall Recovery in Learning Losses

Rural schoolchildren have largely recovered from the learning losses caused by school closures during COVID-19. However, the recovery is uneven, with variations across subjects, school types (government vs. private), and states.

Reading Ability

Uneven Recovery: Government school students have fully recovered to pre-pandemic reading levels.

• Private school students have not fully recovered, despite some improvement.
• Key statistics (Class 5 students reading a Class 2-level paragraph in their regional language):
  • Government schools:
    • 2018:2%
    • 2022:5% (pandemic low)
    • 2024:8% (6.3-point recovery)
  • Private schools:
    • 2018:1%
    • 2022:8%
    • 2024:3% (only a 2.5-point recovery)

Arithmetic Skills: Stronger Recovery

• Both government and private school students have exceeded their pre-pandemic arithmetic proficiency levels.
• Government school students showed a stronger recovery than private school students.
• Key statistics (Class 5 students able to divide three-digit numbers):
  • Government schools:
    • 2018:7%
    • 2022:6%
    • 2024:5% (4.9-point recovery)
  • Private schools:
    • 2018:8%
    • 2022:7%
    • 2024:8% (3.1-point recovery)

State-Level Variations

Not all states followed the national trend of recovery.

Reading Ability

• States that followed the national trend: Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Tamil Nadu.
• States that did not recover fully: Andhra Pradesh & Kerala (Government schoolchildren’s reading ability did not recover).
  • Bihar (Private schoolchildren’s reading ability did not recover).
  • Chhattisgarh (No recovery in both government and private schools).

Arithmetic Ability

• States that followed the national trend: Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.
• States with worsened arithmetic skills: Kerala (Decline in both government and private schools in 2024).

Key Findings of ASER 2024 on Maternal Education Levels

Decline in Unschooled Mothers

• In 2016, 6% of mothers (of children aged 5-16 years) had never attended school.
• By 2024, this figure dropped to 4%, marking a 17.2 percentage point decline.

Increase in Mothers Pursuing Higher Education

The percentage of mothers who studied beyond Class 10 has doubled in eight years:

• 2016: 2% of mothers studied beyond Class 10.
• 2024: 5%, reflecting a 10.3 percentage point increase.

State-Wise Trends in Maternal Education Levels

Best Performing States (Highest Percentage of Mothers Studied Beyond Class 10 in 2024)

• Kerala:
  • 2016: 40% of mothers studied beyond Class 10.
  • 2024: 6% (Highest in India).
• Himachal Pradesh
  • 2016: 7% of mothers had studied beyond Class 10.
  • 2024: 4%.

Worst Performing State

• Madhya Pradesh
  • 2016: Only 3.6% of mothers studied beyond Class 10.
  • 2024: Increased to 9.7%, but remains the lowest in India.

Challenges Highlighted in ASER 2024

Teacher Training: Progress But Still Work in Progress

• Many teachers have become more empathetic and are better at addressing students’ learning needs.
• However, teacher training programs are not yet fully sufficient to help teachers tackle classroom-specific challenges.
• Limited post-training support is available to teachers.
• Decisions on teaching methods are still syllabus-driven, rather than focusing on ensuring universal FLN.

Key Areas for Policymakers to Focus On

• Strengthen post-training teacher support to ensure effective classroom teaching beyond syllabus completion.
• Address state-level disparities in reading and arithmetic recovery, especially in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh.
• Ensure flexible pedagogy that adapts to different learning levels, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
• Sustain momentum on FLN initiatives to secure long-term learning improvements.

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