GUWAHATI, Oct 30 - The 15th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2020 Wave 1) which was released on Wednesday shows that in Assam enrolment of girls for Std-I and II in private schools increased from 31.3 per cent in 2018 to 40.2 per cent in 2020. Similarly, private school enrolment for girls for Std-III to V increased from 25.4 per cent in 2018 to 29.2 per cent in 2020. This was in contrast to the countrywide trend of rising enrolment of students (both boys and girls) in government schools. While boys� enrolment rose from 62.8 pc in 2018 to 66.4 pc in 2020, girls� enrolment rose from 70 pc to 73 pc during the same period.
In Assam, the survey reached 2,099 households and 2,162 children in the age group of 5-16 years. While nationally the proportion of children not currently enrolled for the 2020-21 school year is higher than the equivalent figures for 2018, for most age groups these differences are small. However, in Assam the proportion of children not enrolled in school has dropped from 2018 to 2020 � the figures (in the age group 6 to 16) in 2018 and 2020 being 3.5 pc and 2.2 pc respectively.
Another important finding against the backdrop of the Covid-19-induced lockdown resulting in prolonged closure of schools with children relying mainly on the resources available at home to help them learn is that among enrolled children in Assam, 60.7 pc live in families with at least one smartphone. This percentage was 36.1 in 2018.
In Assam, 98.4 pc children received textbooks for their current grade.
ASER 2020 data also shows that regardless of parents� education level, families are investing significant effort in supporting children�s learning. �While schools are closed, almost three quarters of all children receive some form of learning support from family members. Notably, even among children whose neither parent has studied beyond primary school, family members do provide support. Older siblings play an important role in providing learning support to children in these households. Children in lower grades get more family support than in higher ones. Similarly, children with more educated parents receive more family support than those with less educated parents,� the report said.
During the lockdown-induced school closure and children�s engagement with learning materials and activities, 24.9 pc children of Assam received learning materials during the reference period. Regardless of school type, WhatsApp was the most common medium through which activities and materials were received. However, this proportion was much higher among children in private schools (87.2 pc) than those in government schools (67.3 pc), exposing the digital divide.
During the reference period in Assam, major types of activities done involved traditional teaching-learning material textbooks (52.9 pc) and worksheet (19.5 pc). However, one major difference visible by school type is that children in private schools were much more likely to have accessed online resources than those in government schools. For example, 28.7 pc of children enrolled in private schools had watched videos or other pre-recorded content online, as compared to 18.3 pc of government school students.
�In Assam 20.4 pc private school student had watched videos or other pre-recorded content online, as compared to 9.5 pc of government school students,� the report stated, adding that 15.1 pc government teachers visited or called parent/child in the reference week and it was 35.1 pc for the private schoolteacher.
