ASER 2021: Enrolment in Govt Schools, Paid Tuitions Increase during Pandemic Year

ASER 2021 Findings: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has found some key findings on how the pandemic affected education and students during the last year. The 16th Annual Report compiled by the education non-profit Pratham, which aims to assess the state of education in the country for an academic year. The key findings of ASER 2021 have been the increase in the enrolment of students in Government Schools across the country and similar reduction in enrolment of students in private schools as the pandemic extended in another year.

This clearly points to how the pandemic and stressed financial situation in rural India led to the migration of students from private to government schools. Know these and many other key findings of enrolment status, paid tuitions and other aspects of the Indian Education System for the year 2021 as per ASER 2021 Here.

Shift Towards Govt Schools

One of the most important and key findings of ASER 2021 shows a clear shift from private to government schools at an all-India level. According to the report, for the age group of 6 to 14 years, enrollment in private schools has decreased from 32.5% in 2018 to 24.4% in 2021. Another point that clearly demonstrates this is the rise in enrolment in government schools from 65.8 percent in 2020 to 70.3 percent in 2021. On the other hand, enrolment in private schools has fallen from 28.8 percent to 24.4 percent.

“Incidence of private schooling in India has been rising over time. From 2006 to 2014 there was a steady increase. After plateauing around 30% for a few years, there has been a significant decline in the pandemic years,” the report stated. The report, however, noted that it is difficult to say whether this is a temporary phenomenon or not.

State-wise Enrollments 

Uttar Pradesh and Kerala recorded the most increase in enrollments with an increase of 13.2% points and 11.9% points respectively in 2021 compared to 2018. Also, all government schools in the southern states, except Telangana, have seen an increase of more than eight percentage points in government school enrollment this year as compared to 2018. The report also noted that the increase in government school enrollment was not limited to any particular grade or gender but it was throughout. However, the report found that the number of girl children in government schools was much higher than the number of boy children. 

ASER Findings 2021 Paid Tuitions 

The report found that the number of children taking paid tuition has increased during the pandemic. States such as West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha have the most number of students taking paid tuition. However, Kerala is the only state which showed the opposite trend with the number of students taking tuition falling from 28.2% in 2018 to 18.8% in 2021. The report also stated, “During an extended period of school closure and uncertainty, it is not surprising to see the emergence of "tuition" or local coaching classes as a response. Nationally, in 2018, less than 30 % children took tuition classes. But by 2021, this number has reached 40 percent.” 

ASER Findings 2021 Government Schools and Textbooks 

The report also found that government schools were much better at ensuring that students had textbooks of their current grade compared to private schools. “Even in September 2020 at the time of ASER 2020 survey, a substantial portion of children had textbooks for their current grade,” the report said. 

"This figure has gone up in 2021 with a reduction in the gap between government schools and private schools. Still, a slightly higher fraction of government school children have textbooks in 2021 as compared to their counterparts in private schools,” it said.