NEWS – ASER Karnataka report 2023 released by non-profit Pratham

HIGHLIGHTS

• Learning levels needs to be improved in Karnataka
• Picked Mysuru district in Karnataka for the survey
• 6% youth not enrolled in school or college
• 8% youth can read at least a std 2 level text (14-16 age) and only 58% can read basic English
• Annual survey
• Focused on the 14 – 18 age group for the first time.
• Mysuru reported only 2% of their youth population not enrolled in any of the educational institutions as against the average 7% in the age group of 14-16 years. However, the percentage is 19% among 17-18-year-olds
• 71% students are enrolled in government institutions in school and about half among the 17-18-year-olds
• Those engaged in vocational training programmes are poor, 4% in 14-16-year-olds and 7% in 18-19 year olds
• 3% enrolled for humanities/arts and only 20% for STEM course
• 6% have a smart phone at home – 96.1% can use, 57% never accessed any online services, 81% were able to browse for information and 93% could find YouTube video and 84.2% could bring a smartphone to do digital tasks and 93% used social media during the survey week

National statistics

• Looking at the national picture, only 77% in the 17-18-year-old category could read class 2 textbooks, only 35% could do division. At the same time, 58% students could divide in Bihar’s Muzzafarpur, 54% in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras.
• In Kerala’s Ernakulam 61% could divide, Tamil Nadu’s Perambalur had 49% students capable of doing division.
• Telangana’s Khammam (18%) and Maharashtra’s Nanded (32%) fared even poorer.
• Meanwhile, the national findings reveal that learning trajectory over grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 were relatively flat