NEW DELHI: While more students got enrolled in government schools between 2018 and 2021, there also was a big jump in children taking private tuition, the latest Annual Status of Education Report revealed.
ASER is a citizen-led household survey by NGO Pratham. Its findings offer insights on the COVID's impact on education. The survey was conducted in 25 states and three UTs covering 75,234 children in the 5-16 year age group.
In rural India, the proportion of students in government schools went up from 64.3 per cent in 2018 to 70.3 per cent in 2021 (see table). The rise was across all grades. "Incidence of private schooling in India has been rising... from 2006 to 2014... After plateauing around 30 per cent for a few years, there has been a significant decline in the pandemic years," it noted.
Besides, close to 40 per cent are now dependent on private tuitions as against to about 30 per cent in 2018. Significantly, the largest section of children taking tuition is from the most disadvantaged households.
"Taking parental education as a proxy for economic status, between 2018 and 2021, the proportion of children with parents in the 'low' education category who are taking tuition increased by 12.6 percentage points, as opposed to a 7.2 percentage point increase among children with parents in the 'high' education category," the report said.
The highest number of kids taking private tuitions is in Bengal - 76.5 per cent - followed by Bihar at 73.5 per cent. In 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in the number of children not enrolled in schools, especially among boys.
Dropouts
While in 2018, 1.4 per cent boys in the 7-10 age group and 2.9 per cent in the 11-14 group were not in school, it jumped to 4.7 per cent and 4.1 per cent in 2020 and 2021
