Data for better education, a brighter future for students

Context: Use of ASER: Annual Status of Education Report and other data for corrective action.

Key issues in India’s education ecosystem

• Poor outcome-26% of 14-18 year olds cannot read a standard two level text in their regional language (ASER-2023).
• Legacy issue-In 2018, 32% of standard seven and 27% of standard eight children couldn’t read at that level.
• Poor attendance-Rural secondary grades (standards nine and 10) had as low as 60% attendance (NSSO-75th round).
• Poor availability of reading material-Few rural households have reading materials beyond textbooks (ASER, State of Elementary Education in Rural India Report).
• Aspiration for education- a higher percentage of girls aspiring for a college education (65%) when compared to boys (59%). (ASER-2023).
• Poor work aspiration-One in five haven’t thought about work; half with aspirations lack exposure to professions (ASER-2023).

The way ahead:

• Access to smartphones should be utilized for educational purposes.
• Schools and colleges should collaborate with ed-tech agencies, industries.
• Rigorous data collection can highlight problems and provide actionable insights.
• Community libraries can foster reading, creativity, and critical thinking.

Source: The Hindu