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Over 80% Children Under 5 Enrolled In Pre-Primary Schools

Education

Over 80% Children Under 5 Enrolled In Pre-Primary Schools

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The recently published Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 reports that there has been substantial improvement in preschool enrollment all across India and points to the fact that more than 80% of children aged 3-5 years are now enrolled in some pre-primary institution. It further found an upward decline in underage entering Standard I, indicating a welcome trend shift in early childhood education.

Among three-year-olds, there was a continued rise in enrollment rates for pre-primary, with the report recording 68.1% in 2018 and rising to 77.4% in 2024. In many states, it is close to universal, while in states such as Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh, there are concerns: more than 50% of three-year-olds were not enrolled in any type of pre-primary institution.

Enrolment rates for children aged four also went upwards to 83.3% from 76% in 2018. Among the states, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha have registered their enrolment of more than 95%. Enrolment in pre-primary also improved with children aged five and above rising to 71.4% in 2024 from 58.5% in 2018. While the rest of the country, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Nagaland all have enrolment rates over 90% of children.

Anganwadi centers continue to be a primary source of pre-primary education with more than half of the 3 and 4-year olds enrolled in anganwadis across the country. Even in states such as Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Karnataka, the enrollment has been above 75% for these age groups. What is interesting is that one-third of five-year olds now attend private schools or preschools. Whereas the figure had come down during the pandemic, in 2024, it reverted to 37.5 percent, which is similar to that of 2018. There has been an increase in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir’s enrollment in government pre-primary classes.

The report further pointed out a decline in the percentage of “underage” children (children aged five or below) who enter Standard I. The figure declined from 25.6% in 2018 to a record-low 16.7% in 2024. Gujarat witnessed an impressive decrease, from 36.4% in 2022 to less than 4% in 2024, indicating increased adherence to age-appropriate education norms.

Since the past nearly two decades, school enrolment rates among children 6-14 years of age have been kept above 95%. In 2024, the figure was 98.1% with not much deviation from previous years. However, there has been a declining trend in government school enrolment – from 72.9% in 2022 to 66.8% in 2024. Exemptions to this trend were Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, as their government school enrolments increased.

Reading skills among the elementary grade children witnessed remarkable improvements. The proportion of Standard III students in government schools who could read at standard II level increased to 23.4% in 2024 compared with 16.3% in 2022. This improvement was far more than that of the private schools. All the states showed significant improvement in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, and Maharashtra.

In Standard V, the percentage of government school students who could read a Standard II level text improved from 38.5% in 2022 to 44.8% in 2024. Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh led the charts with the highest proportions of proficient readers. Standard VIII reading levels also showed a slight recovery, rising from 66.2% in 2022 to 67.5% in 2024.

Arithmetic skills have also increased, where 33.7% of Standard III students could solve numerical subtraction problems in 2024, compared to 25.9% in 2022. Government school students showed huge gains, particularly in states like Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. For Standard V students, the proportion of students able to solve numerical division problems rose to 30.7% in 2024, led mainly by the improvement in government schools.

Old ages 15-16 years enrollment rate remained the same at 92.1% in 2024; however, between 2018 and 2022, children not enrolled at school declined dramatically. The share of girls out of school is increasing slightly at 7.9% in 2022 to 8.1% in 2024. Three states, namely Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, continued reporting higher non-enrolment for girls.

Conducted by Pratham, the ASER 2024 survey covered 649,491 children across 17,997 villages in 605 rural districts. The findings underline both progress and persistent challenges in India’s educational landscape, with continued efforts needed to address disparities in pre-primary and elementary education.

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