Learning impacted in India due to Covid shutdown

The ASER report on education explains the huge gap that crores of young children now face in learning outcomes.

Learning impacted in India due to Covid shutdown

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• The story: As schools in India slowly began opening up after the 500 days-long disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, the major national education survey of India (ASER) captured an unprecedented jump in government school students, and a 10-year low in private school enrolments. It reported a growing dependency on private tuition classes — and a stark digital divide, which carries the risk of severely affecting the learning abilities of primary grade students. India's structural inequality has been totally exposed in the findings.
• ASER: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey, which is facilitated by Pratham Education Foundation, is the oldest survey of its kind in the country, and well regarded for the range of insights it provides on levels of foundational learning at the elementary level. In the context of the pandemic, the ASER Centre switched its focus to access to learning opportunities in 2020, and in its latest report released in November 2021.

1. The 16th edition of the report is based on a phone survey, conducted in September and October, of 75,234 children ages 5-16 across 581 rural districts in 25 states and three Union Territories. The surveyors also contacted teachers or head teachers from 7,299 government schools offering primary grades.
2. Headline numbers - The report shows a “clear shift” from private to government schools — from 64.3 per cent in 2018 to 65.8 per cent in 2020, to 70.3 per cent in 2021; and a fall in private school enrolment from 28.8 per cent in 2020 to 24.4 per cent in 2021.
3. According to ASER, government school enrolment had been declining since 2006 till it stabilised around 65% in 2018. Seen in this background, an increase of 5 percentage points over the last year is very significant.

• Tuition-dependent: Students, especially those from poor families, are dependent more than ever on private tuition. While 39.2 per cent of children overall are now taking tuitions, between 2018 and 2021, the proportion of children with parents in the ‘low’ education category who are taking tuitions increased by 12.6 percentage points, as opposed to a 7.2-percentage-point increase among children with parents in the ‘high’ education category. The report classifies families with parents who have studied up to Class 5 or lower in the ‘low’ education category; parents who have cleared at least Class 9 are in the ‘high’ education category.
• Digital divide: From having no experience of pre-primary class to the lack of access to digital devices, the pandemic has left the youngest entrants in India’s formal education system particularly vulnerable, and not addressing their specific needs can have grave consequences.

1. About 1 in 3 children in Classes I and II have never attended an in-person class. Among government school students, the percentage in 36.8; in private schools, it is 33.6 per cent.
2. These students who entered the school system after the pandemic will require time to settle down, get ready for the formal education system… This is essential as these students do not even have the experience of pre-primary schools, or anganwadis.
3. Of concern is the survey finding that the youngest learners also have the “least access to technology”. Almost a third of all children in Classes I and II did not have a smartphone available at home.
4. While the percentage of enrolled children having at least one smartphone at home has risen from 36.5 to 67.6 between 2018 and 2021, only 19.9 per cent of children in Classes I-II have access to the devices whenever they require. The access to smartphones increases with age, with 35.4 per cent students in Classes IX and above having constant access.
5. 65.4 per cent teachers flagged the problem of children being “unable to catch up” as one of their biggest challenges — which is also a warning that their learning outcomes are set to be affected unless addressed with urgency. During the recent National Achievement Survey (NAS) of the central government, teachers and field investigators across the country reported that primary grade kids struggled to make sense of questions to test basic comprehension and numerical skills.
6. The ASER survey did not shed light on learning outcomes, but a sample assessment (done in Karnataka in March 2021 that covered 20,000 children ages 5-15) had found “steep drops” in foundational skills, especially in lower primary grades — which underlined the need for special attention to children of primary classes as they return to, or enter schools for the first time.

• The good thing: The report captured a decline in the proportion of children not currently enrolled in the 15-16 age group — the one in which the risk of dropping out is the highest. In 2010, the proportion of 15-16-year-olds who were out of school was 16.1%. Driven by the government’s push to universalise secondary education, this number has been steadily declining and stood at 12.1% in 2018. The decline continued in 2020 to 9.9% and to 6.6% in 2021. The survey found that 91.9 per cent of enrolled children have textbooks for their current grade. But only about a third (33.5 per cent) of children in grades I-II of yet-to-reopen schools reported having received learning materials — print or virtual worksheets, online or recorded classes, or learning-related videos — from schools.
• Summary: India society has been an unequal one since ages. The pandemic suddenly exposed the bottom of the pyramid households to the stark reality of digital life - one needs a functional internet connection, smart digital devices and a room for study. Lacking these, crores of children simply dropped out of the education mainstream. It's a big wake up call for the government, and remedial action is warranted.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: 

1. Explain the potential risks to the demographic dividend of India, if the digital divide seen during the pandemic months insofar as children's education was concerned, is not remedied appropriately. 
2. What went wrong in the internet-based education model that authorities assumed would take off in the pandemic? Explain.

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