Lessons in the pandemic

Context: The Annual Status of Education Report (Aser) for 2021, conducted by the non-governmental organisation Pratham, offers some critical pointers for policymakers on the direction of rural school education in a post-pandemic world.

Need for public education budgets

• Rise in enrolment in government schools: In 2018, 64 per cent of children aged 6 to 14 years were enrolled in government schools. By 2020, this percentage rose to 66 per cent and then to 70.3 per cent in 2021.
• Financial crisis of parents: Private school enrolment plateaued at about 30 per cent fell 6% during the pandemic years due inaccessibility to free facilities, closure and labour migration.
• UP (13.2%) and Kerala (12%) saw the biggest change in government school enrolment between 2018 and 2021.
• Digital divide: The deficiency was clearly accentuated in the survey’s findings on children’s access to smartphones.
• 68 per cent of enrolled children had at least one smartphone at home but having a smartphone at home did not automatically translate into children having access to the device.
• 26 per cent of them had no access to it at all.
• In Bihar, UP and West Bengal, the lack of access varied from 54 to 34 per cent.

Way Forward

• Address the huge learning losses: Bridging the loss that India’s children, especially in the formative years, have suffered in education.
• Collective digital education infrastructure: More concentration in those remote areas where disruptions to school attendance can be frequent.
• Impart skill development: Critical to future employment, this should be an urgent priority.

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