It is not hidden from anyone that due to Corona, the physical capacity of the student started getting affected due to online classes, on which many questions were also raised.
However, there was no system even to study online in the schools of rural India. In such a situation, the ASER i.e. Annual Status of Education report has come out after four years regarding the impact on the mental and physical ability of the children, or the change in the ability to read and understand.
ASER is an annual survey that aims to provide reliable estimates of children’s enrollment and basic learning levels for each district and state in India.
According to the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released on Wednesday, Himachal Pradesh witnessed a decline in the level of education during the pandemic.
The report says that states like Chhattisgarh were ahead of Himachal Pradesh in opening educational institutions after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Himachal Pradesh had high math levels in previous years that fell during the pandemic, as evidenced by the fact that in 2012, 67.7% of eighth graders could do division, compared to 48.2% in 2022.
According to the report, there were fewer students in Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra who could do basic subtraction in 2022 as compared to 2018. Himachal’s figure was to fall from 42.4% in 2018 to 31.3% in 2022.
In Himachal, the number of 3 year-olds not enrolled in any school is set to increase from 6.6% in 2018 to 17.7% in 2022. The number of students enrolled in private schools decreased from 40.7% to 33.4%.
There has also been an increase in providing private tuition to children from classes 1 to 8. Private tuition is being giving to children studying in both government or non-government schools. The number of students (between Standard 2 and Class 8) taking tuitions increased from 7.3% to 9.7% in 2018-2022. The report observed a dip of 27 percentage points in the number of students of standard 3 who could read standard 2-level texts.
The percentage of Class 3 students who know at least ‘subtraction’ has also declined. That 42.4% of children could do division in 2012, compared to 31.3% in 2022.
Around 54.7% of Class 8 students in government schools could crack the split in 2018, which has come down to 48% in 2022, the report observed.
Overall, the learning levels of Himachal students in Classes 3, 5 and 8 declined from 8% to 20% across categories.
In terms of improvement in Himachal Pradesh, the number of children aged 6-14 years enrolled in government schools increased from 58.9% to 66.3%.
The number of children enrolled in primary and upper primary schools surveyed remained the same at about 83% between 2018 and 2022.
