ASER Report: Bihar joins national trend to show improvement, but still long way to go
Bihar has also witnessed improvement in the learning outcome, but the pace of progress is slower, says the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) – 2024.
Like other states, Bihar has also witnessed improvement in the learning outcome, but the pace of progress is slower, says the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) – 2024, which was released on Tuesday.
The reading level of Class 5 students in government schools improved to 44.8% in 2024 (up from 38.5%) across the country, while in Bihar it was 41.2% (up from 37.1% in 2022). They were given a simple Class 2 text to read. At the national level the improvement during the period is 6.3% points during the two year period.
A significant finding of the report is that the government schools have improved by 4.1% point, private schools have shown decline of -7.2% in reading outcome compared to 2022. The report points to visible recovery in most states after the pandemic.
In arithmetic, 36.2% children could solve a simple three digit by one digit division (up from 29.9% in 2018 and 35.6% in 2022). In arithmetic also, private schools showed improvement by just 0.6% point, but it was 2.5% points in the government schools compared to 2022. Overall, however, the learning levels in the private schools continues to be higher, says the report.
Class commensurate learning remains a challenge in the state. In Class 3, just 26.3% of children could read simple Class 2 text (up from 19.8% in 2022), while just 37.5% could do simple subtraction compared to 28.8% in 2022.
For Bihar, the health of government schools is more important as it has one of the highest government schools enrolments, according to the report. In 2024, 80% of the rural children were enrolled in them, while the figure was just 66.8% at the national level.
The 2022 report had shown Bihar grappling with low attendance of both students and teachers in schools and grade-commensurate learning outcome extremely low and almost unchanged in the last four years. It had also flagged high prevalence of private tuition - nearly 2.5 times the national average.
The latest report also does not present a promising picture. As per the report, students’ enrolment has remained approximately at about 60% in primary schools and 53% in upper primary schools for several years, which is lower than the national average. This is despite high enrollment.
ASER 2024: More than 80% children under 5 are enrolled in pre-primary institutions in 2024
In terms of facilities are infrastructure, things have consistently improved in the state, viz. Mid-day mean availability on the day of survey going up from 84.5% in 2018 to 92.9% in 2024, while usable toilets availability increasing from 75.6% in 2018 to 82.5% in 2024, with vast improvement in toilet facilities for girls to reach 63.6% from 63% during the period.
In digital access Bihar atudents seem to match the nation level or do even better. In Bihar 82.1% of the adolescents in the age group of 14-16 own a smart phone compared to the national average of 89.1. However, in browsing information, 80.9% in Bihar do it compared to the national average of 79.3. Bihar adolescents (86.1%) also did better than the national average (87%) in finding video or using Whasapp.
Similar to the overall national trend, the proportion of rural young children age 3-5 enrolled in any type of pre-school alao increased between 2018-2024. In 2024, nationally, 67% of children age 3 and 58% of children age 4 were enrolled in anganwadis in rural India. In Bihar. percentage of children enrolled in anganwadis is higher than the national average at 68.9% (age 3) and 66.9% (age 4).
