School Education: How Indian children fell behind after Covid-19

NEW DELHI: The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 seems to indicate what educationists have been worried about ever since Covid-19 struck – a huge slide in learning levels. With the nationwide closure of schools due to the lockdown, schools had to improvise, use digital solutions, to ensure children continued their learning.

Multiple reports since have shown that these online teaching solutions did not work with even better-resourced schools and families struggling. The latest ASER data seems to confirm the same.

According to the ASER report, only 20.5 percent of Class 3 children in India could read a Class 2 textbook. Reading ability of Class 3 and Class 5 students fell below 2012 levels in more than 20 states.

States lauded for their school education, such as Kerala and Punjab, saw alarming drops in learning levels. Kerala, for instance, recorded the highest fall in learning levels among girls in Class 3. The statistics were alarming for other states as well. In Tamil Nadu, only 3.2 percent of Class 3 students could read a Class 2 textbook.

The ASER findings are summarised below.

Sharpest drops in reading

In 18 states, the learning levels fell below 2012 levels. In Andhra Pradesh, for instance, the learning levels of Class 3 students fell by more than 17 percentage points compared to 2012. Nagaland, Mizoram, Telangana, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim also recorded drops higher than 10 percentage points.

Class 3 Reading Ability: 10 states with sharpest fall, government & private

Tamil Nadu and Telangana recorded single-digit percentages of Class 3 students who can read Class 2 textbooks. Only 4.8 percent students in Tamil Nadu and 5.2 percent students in Telangana could read a Class 2 textbook.

When looking at the data for government schools, Punjab and Kerala, two of the top performing states according to the education ministry’s Performance Grading Index, also feature among the worst performing states in terms of reading ability. Punjab and Kerala recorded a fall of 7.2 percentage points and 6.5 percentage points respectively from the 2012 levels. Both Punjab and Kerala also recorded a fall of more than 10 percentage points compared to 2018 levels.

Class 5 Reading Ability: 10 states with sharpest fall, government & private

In 20 states, the percentage of Class 5 students who can read a Class 2 text was below 2012 levels. In Sikkim, the learning levels fell by more than 30 percentage points compared to 2012. Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Telangana also recorded a fall of nearly 20 percentage points in the reading ability of Class 5 students. In four states – Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram – gains made by 2018 were erased.

The pattern was similar when looking at the data for government schools, which teach some of the most underprivileged children in the country. Sikkim remained the only state which had learning levels fall by more than 30 percentage points compared to 2012. Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Arunachal also recorded a fall in reading ability of more than 20 percentage points.

Reading ability by gender

Except for Sikkim and Tripura, for which data was not available, all states saw the reading ability of boys in Class 3 decline from 2018 levels. The drop was most evident in Himachal Pradesh which recorded a fall of more than 15 percentage points compared to 2018. In five states, the fall in reading ability was more than 10 percentage points.

In Tamil Nadu (3.2 percent), Telangana (5.4 percent), Karnataka (7.5 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (9.5 percent), less than 10 percent of Class 3 boys could read a Class 2 text.

Reading Ability of Class 3 Boys: Sharpest drop

In Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, the reading ability of Class 3 girls fell by more than 20 percentage points. The fall in reading ability was felt more keenly among girls in general as 10 states recorded a fall of more than 10 percentage points compared to 2018.

Reading Ability of Class 3 Girls: Sharpest drop

In Telangana (4.9 percent), Tamil Nadu (6.3 percent) and Karnataka (9.6 percent), less than 10 percent of girl students could read a Class 2 text.

Reading Ability of Class 5 Boys: Sharpest drop

The loss of reading ability among Class 5 boys was felt in 22 states. In Andhra Pradesh, the arithmetic ability of Class 5 students fell by more than 25 percentage points compared to 2018. In 10 states, the arithmetic ability of students fell by more than 10 percentage points.

Reading Ability of Class 5 Girls: Sharpest drop

Gujarat recorded the highest fall in reading ability of Class 5 girl students as the state saw more than 20 percentage point drop when compared to 2018. Karnataka, which saw a drop of 16.2 percentage points and Himachal Pradesh, 15.9 percentage points, also recorded sharp decline.

Arithmetic ability

The ASER report showed that only 25.9 percent Class 3 children could do subtraction in 2022. The arithmetic ability of students fell well below 2012 levels in 18 states. Andhra Pradesh recorded a fall of more than 20 percentage points in the students’ arithmetic ability compared to 2012. With the exception of Himachal Pradesh, all the top 10 worst performing states showed a drop in learning levels by more than 10 percentage points compared to 2012.

Class 3 Maths: Sharpest drops, government & private schools

Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan performed the worst. Only 11.2 percent Class 3 students in Tamil Nadu and only 11.8 percent in Rajasthan could do a simple subtraction exercise.

Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim all recorded a fall of more than 10 percentage points in the ability of Class 3 children in government schools to do basic subtraction. Mizoram alone recorded a drop in arithmetic ability by more than 20
percentage points

Kerala and Punjab again found themselves among the worst-performing states for arithmetic ability of government school students.

Also, less than 10 percent of Class 3 students in government schools in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh could do a basic subtraction exercise in 2022

Class 5 Maths: Sharpest fall in government & private schools

In 16 states, the ability of students to do basic arithmetic tasks fell below 2012 levels. In seven states, the number of students who were able to do basic division fell from 2021 levels by more than 10 percentage points. Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Kerala and Nagaland recorded the steepest fall in arithmetic ability from 2012 levels. However, Sikkim and Mizoram are the only states in this set to show some gains since 2018.

Mizoram (19.3 percent) and Kerala (16.4 percent) recorded the highest fall in arithmetic ability compared to 2018.

Sikkim was the only state to record a fall of 30 percentage points in the arithmetic ability of Class 5 government school students compared to 2012. In seven states, the difference, when compared to the arithmetic level in 2021, was in
double figures.

Moreover, only 6.3 percent Class 5 students in Rajasthan and 8.9 percent Class 5 students in Nagaland were able to do a simple division exercise.