According to the survey conducted, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) highlighted that only 18.5 per cent of Class third students in Maharashtra government schools can do subtraction while only 20.1 per cent of Class fifth and 38.1 per cent of Class eight students were able to do division.
Moreover, the report shows that only 55.5 per cent of Class 5th students can read Class 2 level books and only 34 per cent of the schools have computers. These are some of the findings that were mentioned in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) of the year 2022, which showed the adverse impact of two years of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning in government-run schools in the state.
In 2018, around 28.1 per cent of Class third students could do subtraction, whereas 31.1 per cent of Class fifth children as well as 41.4 per cent of Class eight students could do division in Mathematics subject. In the previous year 2022, there was a sharp decline in arithmetic knowledge. It was found that only 18.5 per cent of Class 3 students can do subtraction, as well as 20.1 per cent of Class 5 and 38.1 per cent of Class 8 students are able to do division.
Districts Survey in Maharashtra
In Maharashtra, about 33 districts, 983 villages, 19396 households and 823 schools were surveyed under the ASER project as per the official information. While enrolment in government schools has seen a significant increase from 61.6 per cent in 2018 to 67.4 per cent in 2022, the same rate has dropped in private schools which is from 37.6 per cent in 2018 to 32.1 per cent.
The report also shows a substantial decline in the capacity of reading a Class 2 level textbook among school-going children. A senior educationist, Vasant Kalpande told that the pandemic has resulted in tremendous academic loss all over the country as compared to other countries that realised the impact of school closure earlier and reopened schools sooner.
The classroom-teacher ratio in government schools dropped from 87 per cent to 81 per cent in 2010. Even though there is a new wave of digitalisation in school education, post-pandemic, the ASER report stated that there is a drop in the number of schools having computers.
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