Learning takes a hit in Himachal's primary schools: ASER

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 19

The reading abilities and basic arithmetic skills of primary section students in rural parts of the state have shown worrying decline since 2018.

As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the percentage of children in Class III who can read Class II-level text has dropped from 47.7% in 2018 to 28.4%. This is among the highest drop registered by any state in this period.

The decline in the reading abilities of the government schools students has been much sharper — as against the drop to 37.1% from 48% in 2018 in private schools, the drop in government schools has been from 47.4% to 23%. The proportion of children enrolled in Class V who can at least read a Class II level text has fallen from 76.9% to 61.3%, which is again among the highest drop in the country.

The decline in basic arithmetic skills, too, is quite sharp. The percentage of Class III children, who can do subtraction, has dropped from 50.1% in 2018 to 41.6%. Again, the decline is much more among government school students. As against 42.4% students who could do subtraction in 2018, only 31.3% students in government schools could do subtraction in 2022.

Meanwhile, in private schools, the drop is just from 58.7% to 58.3%. The proportion of children in Class V who can do division has fallen from 56.6% to 42.6%, again among the highest in the country.

“In several areas, online classes couldn’t be held during the Covid period due to lack of net connectivity. That could be the biggest reason for such a big drop in the learning assessment of the students,” said a school principal.

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