SHILLONG: Percentage of children out of school in Meghalaya in the age group of 6-14 years has increased from 2.8 per cent in 2016 to 5.3 per cent in 2018 which is above the national average of 2.8 per cent, said the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2018, released in New Delhi recently.
This is the thirteenth annual report, which was released by the ASER alumni who were present in the audience.
After conducting a ‘Beyond Basics’ survey in ASER 2017, the report looked at the preparedness of 14 to 18 year olds to lead useful and productive lives as adults, in 2018 ASER focused once again on schooling status of children aged 3 to 16 and basic reading and arithmetic of children in the age group of 5 to 16 years old across rural India.
In 2005, 2007 and every year since 2009, ASER has also included a visit to one government school in each sampled village. Since the implementation of the RTE Act in 2010, school visits in ASER have included indicators of compliance with those norms and standards specified in the Right to Education Act that are easy to measure. In 2018, ASER visited 15,998 government schools across rural India.
ASER, 2018 reached 596 districts in rural India. A total of 354,944 households and 546,527 children in the age group 3 to 16 were surveyed. Seven districts of Meghalaya were covered, covering a total of 4,113 households and 7,979 children.
Overall enrolment (age 6-14 years), for more than ten years, since 2007, the enrollment of children for the age group 6 to 14 has been above 95 per cent nationally. 12.3 per cent of children in the age group of 15 to 16 remain out of school in Meghalaya.
) The national average hides changes in private school figures across states. Meghalaya is one of the topmost states in terms of private school enrollment. Private school enrollment in Meghalaya has seen a consistent rise over the years jumping from 55.2 per cent in 2016 to 58.6 percent in 2018.
The ASER reading test assesses whether a child can read letters, words, a simple paragraph at Class I level of difficulty, or a ‘story’ at Class II level of difficulty. The test is administered one on one to all children in the age group 5 to 16 years and the child is marked at the highest level that she or he can reach.
In Meghalaya, 24.6 per cent of children in Class III can read a Class II level text which is below the national average. After a consistent fall from 29.5 per cent in 2012 to 19.3 per cent in 2016, this figure has seen a rise in 2018.
Teacher and student attendance
At the all India level, no major change is seen in students’ and teachers’ attendance. Average teacher attendance has hovered at around 85 per cent and average student attendance at around 72 per cent for the past several years in both primary and upper primary schools.In Meghalaya, the student attendance has been consistent around 75 per cent while teachers’ attendance, which was showing a declining trend till 2016, showed a slight improvement from 83 per cent in 2016 to 86.6 per cent in 2018.
