Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has recorded the highest enrolment rate (97.1 per cent) in schools in the last 15 years.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022, a national survey that sheds light on learning outcomes in schools, has stated this fact.
A significant improvement is seen in enrolment in government schools in UP from 44. 3 per cent in 2018 to 59. 6 per cent in 2022.
The increase is 15 percentage points as compared to 7 percentage points nationally.
On the contrary, enrolment in private schools has dipped from 49.7 per cent in 2018 to 36.4 per cent in 2022.
However, school attendance remains an issue with only 56.2 per students present in the surveyed government primary school on the day of visit as against 59.9 per cent in 2018, says the report.
There is also a steep decline in the presence of teachers in the schools.
In 2022, 79.8 per cent teachers attended school on the day of visit in comparison to 85.6 per cent in 2018.
In 2010, 80.4 per cent teachers were found present in schools on the day of survey visit.
Director General, school education, Vijay Kiran Anand said: “The School Chalo Abhiyan has paid off thus ensuing migration from private to government schools. A lesson plan-based pedagogy under the NIPUN Bharat Mission has helped us improved our learning outcomes. We will soon distribute tablets to schools for monitoring attendance of students and teachers.”
Though reading levels of children in the state fell overall (grades 3, 5 and 8), the survey shows improvement in arithmetic levels at all stages (grades 3, 5, 8).
The report states that there is an urgent need for “catch up” in basic reading and arithmetic from class 3 onwards.
The fall in overall reading levels between 2018 and 2022 is being driven by decline in reading levels of private school children.
In Uttar Pradesh, children’s ability to read simple English sentences in grade 5 has improved from 18.6 per cent in 2016 to 24.1 per cent in 2022.
–IANS