Earlier this year, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for 2022 was released by the NGO Pratham and the ASER Centre. This report marks a return to the usual, ‘basic’ version of the nationwide household-based survey, after a gap of four years.
And unsurprisingly, just like all earlier ASERs since 2005, ASER 2022 also points out that there is a ‘learning crisis’ in India – many children cannot read simple texts or solve basic arithmetic problems.
While many might consider this insight necessary for raising awareness and mobilising stakeholders into action, it raises two questions for further deliberation.
Do we really need a large-scale learning survey, year after year, to tell us about the same established fact?
How do we go beyond collecting data that just shows a learning crisis in India to collecting data that might help us mitigate it?
ASER is revered by policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders in Indian education and abroad as a scalable and cost-effective source of data on schooling and learning for the country. Over the years, ASER has provided a wide range of data, including insightful information about enrolment, school amenities, access to technology, etc. However, at the heart of ASER, lies its learning survey – which has repeatedly shown how significant percentages of children in India cannot perform simple reading or arithmetic tasks – considered by many as foundational learning.
Year after year, ASER has collected and presented data on foundational learning, and yet, there have been marginal shifts in those learning outcomes. As such, it becomes imperative to question the actionability of the data here. For instance, while we might know what percentage of students cannot read or add, we gain no insight about why that is the case.
The reasons for poor learning outcomes could be myriad – historical caste and class-based inequities, poor quality of teacher training, or lack of nutritious mid-day meals. However, ASER chooses to not engage with any of these social and political complexities that affect education. Instead, it continues to collect redundant data only on basic inputs or simplistic learning outcomes in service of its scalable and efficient model.
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Imagine visiting a clinic continuously with a persistent fever. Suppose all the medical professionals do, day after day, is measure your high temperature and say you have a fever. While knowing your temperature makes you aware that you have a fever, it does little to suggest a starting point for recovery. The latter requires other kinds of tests or diagnoses.
With no significant shifts in learning outcomes despite ASER’s consistent clarion calls about the learning crisis, questions have been raised about not just its recurring frequency but also the narrow nature of the learning data it collects. ASER data has already made it sufficiently clear that many children lack basic reading and arithmetic skills. But now, we need to know what we should act on to change this reality.
Doing an ASER learning survey every year in the way it is done now will not do much, except continue raising awareness. It might only breed an illusion for others that conducting assessments will somehow magically improve learning.
On the lines of ASER, the Union education ministry and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducted a large-scale ‘Foundational Learning Study’ last year. No prizes for guessing what the findings revealed about children’s learning. Collecting data might be a great first step in highlighting a crisis but doing so without any concrete vision for the path forward makes the exercise futile for initiating efforts to solve it.
So what should be the way forward for learning data in India? Data on aspects such as caste-based inequities in school access, teacher beliefs and opinions, and student experiences will significantly move the needle on systemic problems in education that sustain problems of learning in schools. More holistic assessments of other cognitive skills, besides reading and arithmetic, and vital non-cognitive skills, such as social emotional learning, might paint a more appropriate picture of what children in India truly need. In sum, to act on the learning crisis, we don’t just need outcome-based data, which is probably most useful for a handful of politicians, donors, or economists. Instead, we need more process-oriented data that serves educators and policymakers by helping us understand why the crisis continues to persist.
Also read: Why We Shouldn’t Look at ASER 2022 Results as a Glass Half Full
Of course, it would be wishful thinking and unfair to expect ASER to collect data on all these aspects as a single assessment. One might even rightfully emphasise that ASER’s purpose is merely to create awareness and not much more.
But at this moment, that is not enough. As such, firstly, we need to move beyond our dependence on ASER for data on learning, because it merely scratches the surface. Secondly, given the organisational capacity, power and credibility that Pratham and ASER have gained today, they need to redirect their efforts towards collecting data that would provide useful starting points for action.
ASER’s efforts since 2005 to shift the focus in Indian education towards the quality of education is certainly commendable. But after almost two decades of marginal changes, the conversation on quality needs to mature and become more action-oriented. In a moment when inequities are rapidly increasing in India, we need imagination and inspiration to engage with the complexities of education, not merely efficiency and effectiveness.
Abhinav Ghosh is a PhD student at Harvard University.