Haryana: 40% teens cannot calculate time, 25% weights, says survey

Chandigarh, January 17

Close to 40 per cent of the youth in the age group of 14-18 years couldn’t calculate time while around 25 per cent couldn’t add weights, says Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2023 ‘Beyond Basics ’-Rural.

The report which was released today is based on a survey of 1,472 youth from 1,200 households across 60 villages in Sirsa (rural). As many as 19.5 per cent in the 17-18 years age group were not enrolled in any institution. This included those who never enrolled or had dropped out. In the 14-18 years age group, more than one-third of the youth worked for 15 or more days in a month preceding the survey, excluding household work.

In basic arithmetic, over 41 per cent of the youth (17-18 years) couldn’t divide like 883 by 7, 537 by 4, 778 by 6, and 925 by 8, while over 21 per cent in the 14-16 years age group failed to read English sentences, like ‘Where is your cow’, ‘This is a big shop’, ‘I like to read’ and ‘She has a red kite’.

The standards were equally poor in financial calculations as over 30 per cent couldn’t manage a budget given a rate list in the 17-18 years age group while over 40 per cent couldn’t calculate a discount on a product. When it came to calculating repayment like loans, just 21 per cent passed the test.

In the 14-18 years age group, 97.5 per cent of males could use a smartphone, but of them, only 44.8 per cent owned one. Among females, 96.4 per cent could use but among them, just 19 per cent owned a smartphone.

Among female social media users in the 14-16 years age group, only 42.1 per cent could block a profile, 38.7 per cent could make a profile private and just 38.3 per cent could change passwords. In the 17-18 years age group, the percentage improved but only marginally, as 61.6 per cent of females could block a profile, 60.2 per cent could make their profile private and only 50 per cent could change the passwords.

When it came to accessing online services, including making payments, filling a form, paying a bill and booking a ticket, the performance of youth was poor. Just 35.2 per cent of males and 15.9 per cent of females in the age group 14-16 years had ever accessed any online service, respectively. In the 17-18 years age group, the figure improved marginally to 54.5 per cent for males and 26.3 per cent for females.

Most of the youth could set an alarm, browse information and find a YouTube video but the performance was poor when it came to using Google maps. Just 61.9 per cent of males and 31.5 per cent of females could use Google maps in the age group 14-16 years, respectively. In the 17-18 years age group, the figure improved to 74.4 per cent for males and 44.4 per cent for females.

Over 13% keen on joining police

• On career aspirations, for males career in police (13.6%), was at the top, followed by the Army (12.4%), engineering (7.4%) and teaching (6.4%) while 20.8 per cent responded that they did not know
• Among females, career in teaching (25.2%) was at the top, followed by police (13.2%) and doctor (12.1%) while 13.9 per cent responded that they did not know