Question: Which Organisation prepares the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)?
(a) NITI Aayog
(b) Reliance Foundation
(c) Prtham Foundation
(d) None of the above
Ans: c
Recent Context
- 16th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 (Rural) was published by Pratham foundation on November 17, 2021.
- Related Facts
- ASER reports provide information on the schooling status of children in the 5-16 age group across rural India and their ability to do basic reading and arithmetic tasks.
- In 2021 ASER surveys were conducted in phone format as field survey were not possible.
- Survey was conducted during September-October 2021.
- Key Findings of the report
- As per report, there was an overall increase in proportion of children enrolled in govt schools in between 2018 and 2020. Enrolment increased from 64.3% to 65.8%. But in 2021, enrolment suddenly increased to 70.3%.
- Enrolment rate in private schools has decreased as compared to last year. In 2020, enrolment rate was 28.8% which decreased to 24.4% in 2021.
- In 2021, 73.1% school respondents received training to implement Covid-19 prevention measures.
- Even though availability of smartphones increased to 67.6% in 2021 as compared to 36.5% in 2018, around 79% of children in private schools had smartphone at home as opposed to 63.7% children in government school.
- Number of school-going children taking tuition increased by 40% during closure of their schools.
- 52% of the respondents cited financial distress caused by covid-19 pandemic as the reason of increase in enrolments in government school.
By Kameshwar Shukla
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