ASER 2024: Reading & arithmetic skills improve among Class 3 and 5 students, led by govt schools

New Delhi: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024, a comprehensive rural household survey conducted by the Pratham Foundation, was released on January 28. This year’s survey reached 649,491 children across 17,997 villages in 605 rural districts of India. The findings highlight significant progress in reading and arithmetic skills, recovery from pandemic-induced learning loss, and trends in digital literacy.

The ASER 2024 report highlights that the reading levels among students have shown marked improvement, with substantial recovery from the declines recorded in 2022.

For Class 3 students, the percentage of children able to read Class 2-level text rose to 23.4 per cent in 2024, compared to 16.3 per cent in 2022 and 20.9 per cent in 2018. Government schools contributed significantly to this improvement, surpassing the corresponding recovery in private schools. States with over 10 percentage point increases in Class 3 reading levels in government schools between 2022 and 2024 include Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, and Maharashtra.

Among Class 5 students, the percentage of children in government schools who could read a Class 2-level text recovered to 44.8 per cent in 2024, after falling to 38.5 per cent in 2022 from 44.2 per cent in 2018. Private schools saw smaller gains, with this proportion rising to 59.3 per cent in 2024 from 56.8 per cent in 2022, though still below the 65.1 per cent recorded in 2018.

For Class 8 students, the reading levels in government schools showed a slight improvement, reaching 67.5 per cent in 2024 compared to 66.2 per cent in 2022. However, this remains below the 69 per cent recorded in 2018. In private schools, there was no significant change in reading levels between 2022 and 2024. States like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Sikkim demonstrated notable improvements, while declines were observed in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.

Arithmetic levels have also improved among rural students, particularly in government schools. The ASER arithmetic assessment evaluates abilities ranging from basic number recognition to solving numerical division problems.

Among Class 3 students, the proportion able to solve a numerical subtraction problem rose to 33.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 25.9 per cent in 2022 and 28.2 per cent in 2018. Government school students showed significant gains, with this figure increasing to 27.6 per cent in 2024 from 20.2 per cent in 2022. Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh recorded over 15 percentage point increases since 2022.

For Class 5 students, the percentage of children able to solve a numerical division problem rose to 30.7 per cent in 2024 from 25.6 per cent in 2022 and 27.9 per cent in 2018. Improvements were primarily driven by government schools, with Punjab and Uttarakhand achieving gains exceeding 10 percentage points.

Among Class 8 students, arithmetic levels remained steady, with 45.8 per cent able to solve a numerical division problem in 2024, compared to 44.7 per cent in 2022 and 44.1 per cent in 2018.

The ASER 2024 report notes a reversal in the increase in government school enrolment observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proportion of children aged 6–14 years enrolled in government schools, which had risen to 72.9 per cent in 2022, has returned to 66.8 per cent in 2024, close to the 2018 level of 65.6 per cent. Correspondingly, private school enrolment in the same age group increased to 33.2 per cent in 2024, reversing the decline during the pandemic.

Anganwadi centres continue to play a pivotal role in early childhood education. Over 50 per cent of children aged 3 and 4 are enrolled in Anganwadi centres, a trend consistent since 2018. In states such as Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Karnataka, more than 75 per cent of children in this age group are enrolled in Anganwadi centres.

Pre-primary enrolment in government institutions has shown notable increases only in Punjab (11.2 percentage points) and Jammu and Kashmir (7.6 percentage points) since 2018. Meanwhile, approximately one-third of all 5-year-olds attend private schools or pre-schools in 2024, matching the level of 37.5 per cent recorded in 2018, after a decline to 30.8 per cent in 2022.

The proportion of girls aged 6–14 years not enrolled in school has risen slightly, from 7.9 per cent in 2022 to 8.1 per cent in 2024. States such as Madhya Pradesh (16.1 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (15 per cent), Rajasthan (12.7 per cent), Mizoram (12.3 per cent), Gujarat (10.5 per cent), and Chhattisgarh (10 per cent) report the highest proportions of out-of-school girls.

Among 15–16-year-olds, the proportion not enrolled in school dropped from 13.1 per cent in 2018 to 7.5 per cent in 2022 but increased marginally to 7.9 per cent in 2024.

For the first time, ASER 2024 included a section on digital literacy, assessing smartphone access and usage among children aged 14–16 years.

Over 82 per cent of children in 14–16 years age group reported knowing how to use a smartphone, with 57 per cent using it for educational purposes and 76 per cent for social media.

The proportion of children owning a smartphone rose from 19 per cent in 2022 to 31 per cent in 2024. Ownership increases with age, from 27 per cent among 14-year-olds to 37.8 per cent among 16-year-olds. Boys are more likely than girls to own a smartphone, with 36.2 per cent of boys reporting ownership compared to 26.9 per cent of girls.

In Kerala, over 80 per cent of children used smartphones for educational activities, and more than 90 per cent used them for social media. Gender gaps in smartphone ownership and usage persist across all states.

Household access to smartphones has also grown, rising from 36 per cent in 2018 to over 74 per cent in 2022 and reaching 84 per cent in 2024.

ASER 2024 highlights that the pandemic-induced learning loss has been fully recovered, with primary-grade learning levels surpassing pre-pandemic benchmarks in several states. Low-performing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu have shown significant recoveries.

The report also emphasises that digital skills developed during the pandemic, such as using smartphones for educational activities, have persisted, even as their application has shifted post-pandemic.

The proportion of “underage” children (below 6 years old) in Class 1 has declined steadily, from 25.6 per cent in 2018 to 22.7 per cent in 2022, and further to 16.7 per cent in 2024, marking the lowest level recorded so far.