For first time, percentage of rural kids not enrolled in school under 2%

The main reason for the rise in enrollment rate was a steep rise in admissions in the government schools, said ASER report

Despite two years of learning loss due to the Covid-19 pandemic, school education in rural India showed a healthy recovery in 2022, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report released on Wednesday showed. In 2022, for the first time, the proportion of children in rural India not enrolled in schools fell below 2 per cent in 2022 and was 1.6 per cent.

The report surveyed around 700,000 candidates from 19,060 schools in 616 districts to measure post-pandemic learning outcomes for school children. The Pratham Foundation led the survey. 

It showed that the overall enrollment figures for children aged 6-14 years increased from 97.2 per cent in 2018 to 98.4 per cent in 2022. The main reason for the rise was a steep rise in enrollment in government schools.

The report said that the proportion of children enrolled in government schools rose from 65.6 per cent in 2018 to 72.9 per cent in 2022. It was 64.9 per cent in 2014. 

The proportion of those not enrolled had risen sharply from 2.8 per cent in 2018 to 4.6 per cent in 2020. It came down to 1.6 per cent in 2022.

"According to ASER 2020, the proportion of children in the age group of 6 to 14 years not currently enrolled in school went up from 2.8 per cent to 4.6 per cent between 2018 and 2020. This almost doubling of out-of-school numbers, while alarming at first, was seen to be concentrated in the youngest age group of 6 to 10 years, and could be explained by the fact that many young children (6-7 year-olds) were waiting to seek admission when schools reopened," said Wilima Wadhwa, Director at ASER Centre.

In 2021, the proportion of 6 to 14-year-olds not enrolled in school remained the same at 4.6 per cent, with little or no change for other age groups in the 6 to 14 range. According to Wadhwa, it was difficult to say whether the rise in 2020 and 2021 was a "new normal" or a temporary blip with schools closed.

"The ASER 2022 figures show that the increase in out of school numbers during 2020-21 was a temporary phenomenon caused by uncertainty and possibly a lag in recording enrollments. According to ASER 2022, the proportion of not currently enrolled 6 to 14 year-old children is down to 1.6 per cent, almost half of what was observed in 2018 and the lowest we have seen in the decade since the Right to Education Act came into effect," she said.

The highest enrollment was recorded in the age group of 7 to 10 years at 99 per cent, followed by the age group of 11 to 14 years at 98.2 per cent.

In the age group of 15 to 16 years, the proportion of children enrolled in schools was 92.5 per cent, the lowest among all the categories, but it was a major improvement compared to previous years. The non-enrollment was down from 16.1 per cent in 2010 to 7.5 per cent in 2022.

"Driven by the government's push to universalise secondary education, this number (non-enrollment in 15-16-year-olds) has been steadily declining and stood at 13.1 per cent in 2018. The decline continued in 2020 to 9.9 per cent and this proportion stands at 7.5 per cent in 2022," Wadhwa added.

Where there was a rise in admissions in government schools, enrollments in private schools for children aged 6 to 14 years fell in almost every state between 2018 and 2022. It rose in only three states: Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram. 

For both students and teachers, attendance in school has stayed more or less the same since 2018.

"Average teacher attendance increased slightly, from 85.4 per cent in 2018 to 87.1 per cent in 2022. Average student attendance continues to hover at around 72 per cent for the past several years," the report said.

Loss of learning ability

The report, however, highlighted that the Covid-19 pandemic deeply impacted the learning ability of children in rural India.

"Nationally, children's basic reading ability has dropped to pre-2012 levels, reversing the slow improvement achieved in the intervening years. Drops are visible in both government and private schools in most states, and for both boys and girls," it said.

The basic arithmetic levels declined over 2018 levels for most grades. But the declines were less steep, and the picture is more varied than in the case of basic reading.

According to the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pratham Foundation Rukmini Banerji, "'Catch up' interventions are urgently needed. Learning losses incurred during the school closure period highlighted the need for remedial programs in a way that was not as urgently felt before."