Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024, which was released in New Delhi on Tuesday, has stated that basic school facilities like mid-day meals, drinking water, toilets, electricity, and libraries were improving over time in Nagaland.
The fourteenth ‘basic’ Annual Status of Education Report, released by co-founders of Pratham, Dr. Madhav Chavan and Farida Lambay, stated that school observations were focused on availability and usage of facilities.
As per Nagaland state findings from ASER 2024 survey, there was consistent increase in useable school services and facilities like mid-day meals, drinking water and usable toilets.
However, survey found that percentage of schools with usable girls toilets decreased. It also noted that other inputs and facilities in school like electricity and libraries were improving.
ASER survey also found that student attendance in primary schools has decreased from 85.2% to 80.7% between 2022 and 2024. It found that teacher attendance has also decreased from 89.8% to 83.7% between 2022 and 2024. However, they remain higher than the national figures.
Schools also reported high level of inputs and activities related to foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) for early grades in Nagaland.
Young children (under age 6): Nagaland (rural) figures show that early childhood coverage is rising.
In 2024, only 1.9% of children aged 5 were not enrolled anywhere, which is near universal enrollment.
While the national figure stands at 6.2%, the percentage of children age 3 and 4 enrolled in govt pre-school in rural Nagaland in 2024 was much higher than national figure which stood at 2% and 3.3 % respectively.
Further, it found that more children were entering standard I at the “right” age (age 6 or more) in Nagaland. Data on age in Std I over time showed that “underage” enrollment has dropped between 2018 and 2024, both in government and private schools in rural Nagaland. 16.7% of the children enrolled in Std I were “underage” at the national level.
The report remarked that Nagaland was moving towards ensuring that children enter Std I at age 6.
Elementary school age children (age 6-14): Overall, close to universal enrollment for rural children in this age group in Nagaland. Private school enrollment patterns continued to increase. For age group 6-14 in Nagaland (rural), school enrollment levels have been more than 97% for over 10 years now, standing at 98.6% in 2024. Nationally, enrollment levels have been more than 98% since 2022.
In 2024, private school enrollment levels in Nagaland continued to increase, more than 50% children aged 6-14 are enrolled in private schools. Private school enrollment has been increasing for rural children (age 6-14) for over ten years now.
Learning recovery visible for Std III in foundational numeracy levels in Nagaland: For standard III, learning “recovery” was visible for arithmetic in 2024, however, there was a decrease in basic reading levels. It found that loss in reading levels was lower amongst children enrolled in government schools than private schools.
Nagaland shows healthy increase in arithmetic levels for Std III since 2022: The survey found that there was an improvement in arithmetic levels of Std III children enrolled in government schools in rural Nagaland. It said arithmetic levels remained higher than the most of the other North-Eastern states and All-India. The arithmetic levels of children enrolled in Std III in government schools in rural Nagaland increased by 3.7 percentage points in 2024.
Std V reading levels drop in Nagaland in 2024: In rural Nagaland, standard V children enrolled in government schools have lower reading levels in 2024 as compared to 2022. It lags behind the rest of the North Eastern states and All-India levels as well.
However, Nagaland figures show learning “recovery” since COVID in arithmetic. It found that standard V reading levels have remained stagnant between 2018 and 2024. Though standard V arithmetic levels fell between 2018 and 2022, it improved since 2022.
Older children (age 14-16): One-on-one activity to assess basic digital skills: In Nagaland, 82.7% adolescents could bring a smartphone to do the digital tasks.
ASER 2024 reached 649,491 children in 17,997 villages across 605 rural districts in India.
Facilitated by Pratham, in each survey district, a local organisation or institution conducted the survey.
In Nagaland, ASER 2024 reached to 10,056 children in 329 villages across 11 districts (2011 census) in Nagaland. Eight DIETs across eight districts, two government colleges namely, Kohima Science College (Autonomous) Jotsoma and Zisaji Presidency College, Kiphire and Local volunteers from two districts conducted the survey.
The ‘basic’ ASER survey generates district, state and national level estimates of the enrolment status of 3 to 16-year-old children, and basic reading and arithmetic skills of 5 to 16-year-old children.
Additionally, in ASER 2024, older children age 14 to 16 were asked questions about their digital access and usage and were administered a set of smartphone-based tasks to gauge their digital abilities.