By- Mayanglambam Merina
Imphal, Sept 6:
India’s Largest Citizen led Education survey, ASER Survey, 2022 State Level Training begins from 4th-8th September 2022 at DSSS Mantripukhri. Nine Master trainers from 9 districts,Manipur based on 2011 census participated in the ASER Survey, 2022.
They will further train 30-60 volunteer from these 9 districts for Household Survey who are 5-16years in their foundation learning level- which includes Basic Arithmetic, Reading & English reading. 30 villages were randomly selected,20 household (3-16yrs group) for sample data in children education.
The Survey will be held from September to November across India. Final Report to be out in 2023 January.
The Annual Status of Education Report, or ASER, is an annual, citizen-led household survey that aims to understand whether children in rural India are enrolled in school and whether they are leaming. From 2005 to 2014, and then every alternate year till 2018, large-scale, nation-wide ASER surveys provided representative estimates of the enrolment status of children aged 3-16 and the basic reading and arithmetic levels of children aged 5-16 at the national, state and district level. The ASER survey is conducted by over 30,000 volunteers from more than 500 organisations across the country. By joining the ASER survey in their district, people contribute to a massive and important national effort.
The last nation-wide ASER in 2018 reached more than 5 lakh children in over 17,000 villages across almost 600 districts. Owing to safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, during 2020 and 2021 the alternate-year ASER cycle was replaced by phone-based surveys that tracked children’s access to leaming opportunities during the period of school closures. During this period three state-level field surveys were also conducted. in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal.
ASER 2022 marks the resumption of nation-wide field operations for the first time since the pandemic. Comparisons with earlier rounds of ASER will give us a clear picture of the effects of the pandemic on the status of children’s schooling and learning.
Why ASER 2022?
ASER has been highlighting the problem of high enrolment but low learning levels since its inception in 2005. Even in 2018, well before the pandemic. ASER reported that children’s foundational learning levels in India were much below expectation:
Just 1 out of 4 children in Std 3 were at grade level, that is, they could read a Std 2 level text or do double-digit subtraction.
As many as 1 out of 4 children were completing elementary education (Std 8) without being able to read a Std 2 level story.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school closures across the world, causing massive disruption to children’s schooling and learning. In the case of India, where school closures were among the longest in the world. evidence of this disruption is visible in the drop in children’s leaming levels reported by ASER’s 3 state-level field surveys in 2021.
With schools now open across the country, evidence on children’s enrolment and learning is an important input for districts, states, and the country as a whole to understand where children are and the kind of support they need, in order to plan action accordingly.
ASER 2022 is returning to villages across India to generate this evidence.
ASER findings are widely disseminated in the media and have been discussed at the national, state and district level, in the government and outside. Its core message-that children are in school, but not leaming – has played an important role in helping to shift the focus of India’s policy makers from enrolment to leaming. This shift is visible, for example, in the 2017 amendment to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which makes it compulsory for states to codify and assess children’s learning outcomes. More recently, the emphasis on foundational learning is clearly reflected in the National Education Policy’s (2020) goal of ensuring Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) skills for all students by Std 3.
ASER data has been extensively quoted in parliamentary questions over the years, with the most recent mention (December 2021) taking the tally of the total parliamentary questions quoting ASER data to 100. ASER findings have also been cited in NITI Aayog’s Three Year Action Agenda (2017-2020) and are regularly reported in the Economic Survey of India.
Various international organisations have also used ASER data in their reports. A 2021 report by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank, ‘The State of the Global Education Crisis’ includes findings from field survey in Karnataka in 2021. The ‘World Development Report’ on learning prepared by the World Bank in 2018 also cites ASER extensively.
India’s Largest Citizen led Education survey, ASER Survey, 2022 State Level Training begins from 4th-8th September 2022 at DSSS Mantripukhri.
9 Master trainers from across the districts of the State of Manipur based on 2011 census have participated in the ASER Survey, 2022. The Master Trainer will further train other remaining 30-60 volunteer in their respective district to conduct Household Survey and to assess all the Children age group 5 -16 years of their foundation learning level- Basic Arithmetic, Reading & English reading. The survey will be conducted in 30 villages in each district selected randomly in rural areas thereby visiting 20 household having children age group 3-16 in each village to collect sample data related to children education. The Survey will be held all across the country from September to November. And the Final Report will be released in January 2023 & this year ASER North East 2022 will also published.
The Training is conducted by ASER Centre Team Manipur led by Yambem Chingshang Singh, State Co-ordinator, ASER Manipur & Keisham Kishan Singh, ASER Associate, ASER Manipur.
What is ASER?
Are children able to read? Can they solve basic Arithmetic problems?
Did school closures affect children’s enrolment and learning?
What is the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)?
The Annual Status of Education Report, or ASER, is an annual, citizen-led household survey that aims to understand whether children in rural India are enrolled in school and whether they are leaming. From 2005 to 2014, and then every alternate year till 2018, large-scale, nation-wide ASER surveys provided representative estimates of the enrolment status of children aged 3-16 and the basic reading and arithmetic levels of children aged 5-16 at the national, state and district level. The ASER survey is conducted by over 30,000 volunteers from more than 500 organisations across the country. By joining the ASER survey in their district, people contribute to a massive and important national effort.
The last nation-wide ASER in 2018 reached more than 5 lakh children in over 17,000 villages across almost 600 districts. Owing to safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, during 2020 and 2021 the alternate-year ASER cycle was replaced by phone-based surveys that tracked children’s access to leaming opportunities during the period of school closures. During this period three state-level field surveys were also conducted. in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal.
ASER 2022 marks the resumption of nation-wide field operations for the first time since the pandemic. Comparisons with earlier rounds of ASER will give us a clear picture of the effects of the pandemic on the status of children’s schooling and leaming.
WhyASER 2022?
ASER has been highlighting the problem of high enrolment but low learning levels since its inception in 2005. Even in 2018, well before the pandemic. ASER reported that children’s foundational learning levels in India were much below expectation:
Just 1 out of 4 children in Std 3 were at grade level, that is, they could read a Std 2 level text or do double-digit subtraction.
As many as 1 out of 4 children were completing elementary education (Std 8) without being able to read a Std 2 level story.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school closures across the world, causing massive disruption to children’s schooling and learning. In the case of India, where school closures were among the longest in the world. evidence of this disruption is visible in the drop in children’s leaming levels reported by ASER’s 3 state-level field surveys in 2021.
With schools now open across the country, evidence on children’s enrolment and learning is an important input for districts, states, and the country as a whole to understand where children are and the kind of support they need, in order to plan action accordingly.
ASER 2022 is returning to villages across India to generate this evidence.
Has ASER made a difference?
ASER findings are widely disseminated in the media and have been discussed at the national, state and district level, in the government and outside. Its core message-that children are in school, but not leaming – has played an important role in helping to shift the focus of India’s policy makers from enrolment to leaming. This shift is visible, for example, in the 2017 amendment to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which makes it compulsory for states to codify and assess children’s learning outcomes. More recently, the emphasis on foundational learning is clearly reflected in the National Education Policy’s (2020) goal of ensuring Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) skills for all students by Std 3.
ASER data has been extensively quoted in parliamentary questions over the years, with the most recent mention (December 2021) taking the tally of the total parliamentary questions quoting ASER data to 100. ASER findings have also been cited in NITI Aayog’s Three Year Action Agenda (2017-2020) and are regularly reported in the Economic Survey of India.
Various international organisations have also used ASER data in their reports. A 2021 report by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank, ‘The State of the Global Education Crisis’ includes findings from field survey in Karnataka in 2021. The ‘World Development Report’ on learning prepared by the World Bank in 2018 also cites ASER extensively.
