The sixteenth Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), released online on Wednesday has revealed that in Manipur, there has been a huge jump in accessing smartphones from 53.4 per cent in 2018 to 92.9 per cent in 2021; however, 24.5 per cent of these children do not have access to smartphones for studies.
Blame it on disruption of classroom teaching due to the pandemic or the inability to adapt to online education, more school children are opting for private tuition according to the report. As much as 40 per cent of the school children across the country are now opting for private tuition classes compared to 30 per cent in 2018, as per the report. The proportion of children taking tuition in Manipur increased from 46.2 per cent in 2018 to 49.1 per cent in 2021, it mentioned.
The report also shows that the maximum number of such students were from less advantaged families.
The 16th edition of the report by the Pratham foundation was based on a household telephonic survey conducted in rural areas across 581 districts in 25 states and three Union Territories, between September and October. As many as 76,706 households that included 75,234 children in the age group of 5-16 years apart from teachers and staff from 7,300 government schools were covered.
At an all-India level, there has been a clear shift from private to government schools, according to the report. For children in the age group of 6-14, enrolment in private schools has decreased from 32.5 per cent in 2018 to 24.4 per cent in 2021.
As per the report, this shift is seen in all grades and among both boys and girls. The report found no change in children aged 6-14 not being enrolled in schools.
In many Northeastern states, government school enrollment has fallen during this period, and the proportion of children not enrolled in school has increased, the report stated. For Manipur, enrolment in government schools has fallen from 26.8 per cent in 2018 to 13.4 per cent in 2021. This has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the proportion of children currently not enrolled, from 1.1 per cent in 2018 to 15.5 per cent in 2021, as per the report.
The report finds that at an all-India level, in 2018, less than 30 per cent children took private tuition classes. In 2021, the proportion has jumped to almost 40 per cent. The proportion has increased across both sexes and all grades and school types. The incidence of tuition has increased across all states except Kerala, as per the report.
Smartphones became the predominant source of teaching-learning when schools shut down and moved to a remote model of teaching-learning last year, giving rise to concerns about the most marginalised being left behind.
As per the report, smartphone ownership has almost doubled since 2018. The availability of smartphones has increased from 36.5 per cent in 2018 to 67.6 per cent in 2021. However, more children in private schools have a smartphone at home (79 per cent) as opposed to government school going children (63.7 per cent). Although over two thirds of all enrolled children have a smartphone at home (67.6 per cent), over a quarter of these have no access to it (26.1 per cent).
The report also found a clear pattern by grade, with more children in higher classes having access to a smartphone as compared to children in lower grades.
In Manipur, 94.3 per cent of all enrolled children have textbooks for their current grade, as per the report.
The proportion of children attending private tuition classes has shot up since 2018 during an extended period of school closures and uncertainty. ASER 2021 confirms that even if there is a smartphone in the family, children often do not have access to it.
