Government school enrolment declined sharply in Telangana for all classes from 70.1 % in 2022 to 59.8% now, almost hovering around the pre-pandemic figure of 57.4% in 2018.
The numbers are part of the 2024 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a nationwide rural household survey covering 605 districts and 17,997 villages in the country, facilitated by ‘Pratham NGO’, released on Tuesday. For Telangana, the survey was carried out in nine composite districts by the respective District Institutes of Education and Training.
According to the report, Anganwadi centres are popular in Telangana’s districts enrolling 81% of the children at age 3. But by age 4, the numbers fell to 48% and the corresponding number rose in lower and upper kindergarten in private schools.
The reading assessment of children showed several variations. For instance, 7.8% of Class III students could not even read letters, or 27.4% could read Class I text but not Class II, and just 56.4% students in Class VIII could read Class II text.
While assessing arithmetic skills too, it was found that only 34.6% children of Class VIII could do subtraction but not division and only 41% children of the same class could do division.
By enrolment, Adilabad (73.8%) and Khammam (70.4) topped the chart, while Nizamabad (47.9) scored least. And by learning levels, for classes VI-VIII, only 46% could read a Class-II level text and 34.7% children could do division. Of all the districts, Medak showed poor learning levels.
On the contrary, while assessing digital literacy in a particular week, it was found that children aged 14-16 used smartphone more (82.5%) for social media than education-related activity (61.1%). Of the children who used social media too, about 60% were aware of safety features. It was found that 34% of children in all districts own a smartphone.
For specific observations such as enrolment pattern, multigrade classes, attendance and teaching learning material in classroom, a total of 262 schools in the State were visited.
Observing a trend over 2010, 2018, 2022 and 2024, certain facilities such as electricity and separate and useable toilets showed improvement. Nearly 14% of schools do not have a library, 9% of schools do not have a separate girls’ toilet, and 91% of schools do not have a computer available for children to use.
Published – January 28, 2025 10:48 pm IST