Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2024

FOCUS

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a nationwide household survey on children’s education and learning outcomes conducted across rural India. Children aged 3-16 years are surveyed based on pre-school and school enrollment levels, and those between 5-16 years of age are assessed individually on their reading and arithmetic skills. Digital skills and smartphone usage among older children aged 14-16 years are also evaluated in the ASER 2024 report, providing the statistics for both the state and national levels. 

Since 2005, ASER has been conducted annually. From 2016 onwards, ASER started publishing every two years, with the ‘basic’ national ASER being alternated with smaller surveys focusing on other age groups and learning factors. This 2024 report went back to its ‘basic’ model to reach nearly all rural districts of India. 

ASER’s sample design consists of two stages. In the first stage, villages are chosen at random from the Census village directory for each rural district, ensuring holistic coverage of rural India. In the second stage, households are chosen at random from each of the villages identified in the first stage. This sampling approach produces a fair representation of each district. The estimations are consolidated at the divisional, state, and national levels. The 2024 ASER survey was carried out in 352,028 households across 605 districts and 17,997 villages in India. Around 649,491 children across the country were surveyed. 

This 358-page document is divided into 12 chapters: Commentary (Chapter 1); About ASER (Chapter 2); The National Picture (Chapter 3); India (Chapter 4); Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh (Chapter 5);  Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand (Chapter 6); Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya (Chapter 7); Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim (Chapter 8); Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal (Chapter 9);  Divisional Estimates (chapter 10); ASER 2024 Process Documents (Chapter 11); Annexures (Chapter 12). 

    FACTOIDS

  1. The overall enrolment of children between 6–14 years of age was at 98.1 per cent in 2024. This number decreased from 98.4 per cent of the surveyed population in 2022.

  2. At the national level, 66.8 per cent of 3-year-olds were enrolled in Anganwadi Centres in 2024, the same as in 2022. The percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in Anganwadis decreased from 61.2 per cent in 2022 to 57.7 per cent in 2024.

  3. At the national level, the percentage of children between the ages of 15 and 16 years who are not enrolled in school fell noticeably from 13.1 per cent in 2018 to 7.5 per cent in 2022, but remained relatively similar at 7.9 per cent in 2024. 

  4. For the 15–16 age group, the percentage of girls not enrolled in school has inched from 7.9 per cent in 2022 to 8.1 per cent in 2024. Although many states show a decline, the percentage remains above 10 per cent in some states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh.

  5. The percentage of schools with usable toilets for girls rose from 66.4 per cent in 2018 to 68.4 per cent in 2022, reaching 72 per cent in 2024.  While the share of schools where students used books beyond textbooks increased from 36.9 per cent to 43.9 per cent to 51.3 per cent, access to drinking water also improved from 74.8 per cent in 2018 to 76.1 per cent in 2022 to 77.7 per cent in 2024. 

  6. Compared to 2022, the 2024 ASER survey saw an improvement in the reading skills of children at elementary levels in government schools. For class 3, basic reading levels are now the highest recorded in ASER’s history. The share of class 3 students who can read a class 2 level text was 20.9 per cent in 2018, dropped to 16.3 per cent in 2022, and has risen to 23.4 per cent in 2024. Similarly, class 5 reading improved to 48.8 per cent in 2024, almost matching pre-pandemic 2018 figures. Arithmetic skills have shown a significant improvement in both government and private schools compared to 2022.

  7. According to the report, 65.6 per cent of children aged 6–14 were enrolled in government schools in 2018. This went up to 72.9 per cent in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic but dropped again to 66.8 per cent in 2024. This decline happened in all states, excluding Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

  8. In the 14-16 years age group, around 90 per cent of both girls and boys report having access to a smartphone at home. 85.5 per cent of boys compared to 79.4 per cent of girls say they know how to use a smartphone. When it comes to owning their own smartphone, 36.2 per cent of boys and 26.9 per cent of girls report having their own smartphone

  9. For children aged 6–14 years, private school enrollment in rural India is 33.2 per cent in 2024, returning to pre-pandemic levels after a dip in 2022 when government school enrollment surged to 72.9 per cent. 

    Focus and Factoids by Pragati Parihar.

AUTHOR

ASER Centre, New Delhi

COPYRIGHT

ASER Centre, New Delhi

PUBLICATION DATE

Apr, 2025

TAGS

#aser #education #school-teachers #government-schools #rural-education

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