The ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ survey was made public on Wednesday. It showed that although 86.8% of 14–18-year-olds are enrolled in school, 25% of this age group is unable to read a text that is second grade level in their native tongue.
According to the report, which assessed the youth’s basic math abilities, “nearly 85% of surveyed youth can measure length using a scale when the starting point is 0 cm.” If the starting point is changed, this percentage falls off dramatically to 39%. In general, nearly 50% of young people are able to perform other common calculations like adding weights, calculating time, and using the unitary method.”
“More than half have trouble solving division problems (3 digits by 1 digit). Just 43.3% of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 can correctly solve such problems. Third and fourth graders are typically expected to have this skill,” the report stated.
Less women are pursuing STEM degrees.
The survey, which was carried out in 28 districts throughout 26 states, also revealed that, compared to 36.3 percent of men in the same age range, only 28.1 percent of women are likely to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses.
It also showed that only slightly more than half—57.3%—can read sentences in English. Approximately 73.5 percent of English language readers are able to understand the meaning of the sentences they read.
According to the survey, men performed better than women in arithmetic and English reading, but women outperformed men across enrollment categories in reading second grade level text in their local language (76%).
Humanities and Arts are the most popular courses.
Additionally, it stated that of students enrolled in 11th grade or above, the majority are in the Arts or Humanities stream (55.7%), followed by STEM (31.7%) and Commerce (9.4%).
ASER is a national household survey conducted by citizens that offers an overview of the state of children’s education and learning in rural India. 34,745 youth in total were contacted for the survey in one rural district of each major state, with the exception of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
