The Annual Status of Education Report, or ASER, is an annual, citizen-led household survey that aims to understand whether children in rural India are enrolled in school and whether they are learning.
ASER is conducted by Pratham, a non-government organization.
Unlike most other large-scale learning assessments, ASER is a household-based rather than school-based survey.
This design enables all children to be included – those who have never been to school or have dropped out, as well as those who are in government schools, private schools, religious schools, or anywhere else.
The report also said that despite the overall decline, three states – Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh were a matter of concern with more than 10% of girls out of school.
According to the report, there has been a sharp decline in the reading ability of Class 3 girl students in rural schools across the country, as only 20.5% of Class 3 students were found able to read a Class 2 textbook.
