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Like other states, Bihar has also witnessed improvement in the learning outcome, but the pace of progress is slower, says the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) – 2024, which was released on Tuesday.
The reading level of Class 5 students in government schools improved to 44.8% in 2024 (up from 38.5%) across the country, while in Bihar it was 41.2% (up from 37.1% in 2022). They were given a simple Class 2 text to read. At the national level the improvement during the period is 6.3% points during the two year period.
A significant finding of the report is that the government schools have improved by 4.1% point, private schools have shown decline of -7.2% in reading outcome compared to 2022. The report points to visible recovery in most states after the pandemic.
In arithmetic, 36.2% children could solve a simple three digit by one digit division (up from 29.9% in 2018 and 35.6% in 2022). In arithmetic also, private schools showed improvement by just 0.6% point, but it was 2.5% points in the government schools compared to 2022. Overall, however, the learning levels in the private schools continues to be higher, says the report.
Class commensurate learning remains a challenge in the state. In Class 3, just 26.3% of children could read simple Class 2 text (up from 19.8% in 2022), while just 37.5% could do simple subtraction compared to 28.8% in 2022.
For Bihar, the health of government schools is more important as it has one of the highest government schools enrolments, according to the report. In 2024, 80% of the rural children were enrolled in them, while the figure was just 66.8% at the national level.
The 2022 report had shown Bihar grappling with low attendance of both students and teachers in schools and grade-commensurate learning outcome extremely low and almost unchanged in the last four years. It had also flagged high prevalence of private tuition – nearly 2.5 times the national average.
The latest report also does not present a promising picture. As per the report, students’ enrolment has remained approximately at about 60% in primary schools and 53% in upper primary schools for several years, which is lower than the national average. This is despite high enrollment.
ASER 2024: More than 80% children under 5 are enrolled in pre-primary institutions in 2024
In terms of facilities are infrastructure, things have consistently improved in the state, viz. Mid-day mean availability on the day of survey going up from 84.5% in 2018 to 92.9% in 2024, while usable toilets availability increasing from 75.6% in 2018 to 82.5% in 2024, with vast improvement in toilet facilities for girls to reach 63.6% from 63% during the period.
In digital access Bihar atudents seem to match the nation level or do even better. In Bihar 82.1% of the adolescents in the age group of 14-16 own a smart phone compared to the national average of 89.1. However, in browsing information, 80.9% in Bihar do it compared to the national average of 79.3. Bihar adolescents (86.1%) also did better than the national average (87%) in finding video or using Whasapp.
Similar to the overall national trend, the proportion of rural young children age 3-5 enrolled in any type of pre-school alao increased between 2018-2024. In 2024, nationally, 67% of children age 3 and 58% of children age 4 were enrolled in anganwadis in rural India. In Bihar. percentage of children enrolled in anganwadis is higher than the national average at 68.9% (age 3) and 66.9% (age 4).
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