Annual education report: In Standard VIII reading, state students placed third

Himachal is amongst the top states that have recorded significant gains with an overall increase of more than 10 percentage points in various spheres in schools between 2022 and 2024.

The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report for the year 2024 in which 268 schools were inspected indicates encouraging results for Himachal, especially government schools in several areas.

In case of Standard VIII reading levels Himachal has been placed at third position with 84.2 percentage with Mizoram topping the country with 90.1 followed by Kerala at 84.5 per cent. The report has indicated that the education sector which too had been hit by Covid is on a recovery path with learning levels nearing pre-pandemic stage.

With declining enrolment in government schools remaining an area of concern, the overall percentage of children in the 6-14 age group has, however, declined marginally to 58.6 from 58.9 per cent in 2022. The per centage of children in the 15-16 age group who are not going to school has also risen from 2.2 to 3.0 since 2022 which is also worrisome.

What can be termed good news for the hill state, grappling issues like geographical constraints and huge teacher vacancies in remote areas is the quantum jump in reading proficiency of students in government schools at Standard III. The learning level among Standard III students have shot up from 28.4 to 47.7 per cent, placing Himachal at number one in this category.

Himachal also ranks at number one with 90.4 percentage in case of schools having drinking after supply, improving its 2022 per centage of 88.9. In case of digital literacy where students have access and can use a smart phone, Himachal has been placed third with 94.3 per cent with Kerala being at number one, followed by Mizoram.

The government school students have performed exceedingly well even in case of arithmetic levels with a jump of 15.4 increase from 31.3 to 46.7 per cent over the last two years. In comparison, there has been an improvement of 9.2 per cent in case of arithmetic levels in private schools since 2022. The overall improvement in this sphere in schools across the state is 13.8 per cent.

Even in terms of availability of library books, Himachal has been ranked (96.3), third after Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Insofar as the pupil-teacher ratio in schools is concerned, Himachal does not fare too well as compared to many states with a percentage of 58.1. The consolation is that this has improved from 47.5 in 2022.

In case of schools serving midday meals, there has been an improvement from 91.1 to 95.5 per cent over the last two years. In case of schools having drinking water facility also there is overall improvement from 88.9 to 90.4 per cent. Also 99 per cent schools have toilet facility though the usable ones are 90 per cent.