The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education system has been severely detrimental and it stands proven as per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for rural India.
The survey shows that the percentage of children enrolled in government schools rose from 64.3% in 2018 to 65.8% in 2020, dramatically going up to 70.3% in 2021.
On the contrary, the enrolment rate in private schools declined from 28.8% in 2020 to 24.4% in the current year as per the survey which was conducted over the telephone and covering 76,706 households in 17,184 villages.
This confirms that households have been severely affected by the economic depression caused by the pandemic, reducing funds earmarked for children’s education.
The percentage of rural children who were not enrolled in school doubled during the pandemic, with Government schools seeing an increase in enrolment at the expense of private schools, according to the report. Over a third of children enrolled in Classes 1 and 2 have never attended school in person.
The most disturbing aspect of the report is that the young students, those just entering the formal education stream, have been left most vulnerable. One-third in Class I and Class II have never attended an in-person class.
Children with parents educated till Class X had a markedly better access to learning than those pupils whose children are illiterate.
The ASER report also offers a snapshot of the churn in the education system, and also how inherited disadvantages continue to affect quality of learning.
The students have least access to technology as one third of Class I and Class II students do not have a smartphone at home.
This is likely to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots in the education system, in which access to quality education and, thus, access to opportunities for economic advancement is dictated by a family’s economic and social position.
The report has shown that urgent steps must be taken to address this challenge because one cannot afford to further polarize access to education on economic lines.
In view of the covid-19 situation, the resumption of classes is still a far way off. In the interim, all stakeholders must come together to minimize both loss of learning and the emotional distress that comes from being left behind.
