NEW DELHI: More than 86 per cent of teenagers (14 to 18) are enrolled in an educational institution, but a year older is most likely not, according to the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey released on Wednesday.
The report, however, said that 25 per cent of 14-18 age group children cannot read a Class-2 level text fluently in their regional languages.
While more than half struggle with division (3-digit by 1-digit) problems, only 43.3% of 14-18-year-olds can do such problems correctly – a skill usually expected in Class 3 or 4 standard students, said the ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ survey, led by Pratham Foundation, an education-focussed non-profit, which was conducted in 28 districts across 26 states, covering a total of 34,745 youth in the age group 14-18 years.
The survey found a big jump in smartphone access, with 89% of youth - both males and females – having a smartphone at home. However, it found that only 19.8 per cent of females knew how to use a smartphone compared to 43.7 per cent of males.
“Close to 80% of the youth report having used their smartphone to do an entertainment-related activity, such as watching a movie or listening to music, during the reference week," it said.
This time, the survey was also zeroed in on the course stream most preferred by students. It found that more than half of the students in 14-18 years opt for the humanities stream, followed by science and commerce.
Although it was thought that COVID-19 would lead many, especially older students, to drop out of school, it was not found to be true.
“One major worry during COVID was that with livelihoods being threatened, older children would drop out of school. That fear turned out to be unfounded,” said the survey that provides a snapshot of the status of children’s schooling and learning in rural India.
The proportion of out-of-school children and youth has been secularly declining, led by the government’s push to universalise secondary education, it added.
More and more young people have completed eight or more years of schooling – 84% compared to 81% in 2017.
Among those enrolled, a higher percentage are in government institutions than in private institutions and among youth aged 16-17, a higher proportion of females than males are enrolled.
Last year’s report showed that the enrollment levels of children in the age bracket of 6 to 14 years had gone from 96.6 per cent in 2010 to 96.7 per cent in 2014 and 97.2 per cent in 2018 to 98.4 in 2022.
The percentage of youth not enrolled is 3.9 per cent for 14-year-olds and 32.6 per cent for 18-year-olds.
However, it said that there has been no significant change in students’ foundational literacy and numeracy skills (FLN).
The report said that in 2017, 76.6 per cent of 14-18-olds could read a grade 2-level text, while in 2023, this number dipped to 73.6%.
In arithmetic, in 2017, 39.5 per cent of youth could do a superficial (grade 3-4 level) division problem, while in 2023, this proportion went up to 43.3%. "A little over half can read sentences in English (57.3%). Of those who can read sentences in English, almost three quarters can tell their meanings (73.5%)," the report added.
It also found that while males wanted to join the army and police, females preferred to be teachers, doctors and then police.
Only 5.6 per cent of youngsters in the country are currently undergoing vocational training or have been enrolled in other related courses, the report said.