Over 10% more children taking private tuition, learning support at home less than last year

New Delhi, Nov 17

There has been over a 10 per cent increase in the proportion of school going children taking paid tuition classes since the pre-pandemic time (2018), according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2021, launched on Wednesday.

The report also pointed out that the learning support at home for children has decreased over the last year.

"At an all-India level, in 2018, less than 30 per cent children took private tuition classes. In 2021, this proportion has jumped to almost 40 per cent. This proportion has increased across both sexes and all grades and school types," it said, adding except Kerala, there has been marked increase across almost all states in percentage of children attending tuition classes.

The 16th ASER report noted that the largest increase in the proportion of children taking tuition is seen among those from the most disadvantaged households.

"Taking parental education as a proxy for economic status, the proportion of children with parents in the 'low' education category who are taking tuition increased by 12.6 percentage points, as opposed to a 7.2 percentage point increase among children with parents in the 'high' education category," the report said.

"Some differences are visible in the proportion of children taking tuition by school reopening status, with tuition classes more common among children whose schools were still closed at the time of the survey. The difference in tuition taking is larger in higher classes than lower ones,” it said.

The report is based on a survey that was conducted in 25 states and three Union Territories. It covered a total of 76,706 households and 75,234 children in the age group of five to 16 years.

A total of 4,872 schools, which had reopened post their closure due to the pandemic, were surveyed while in-charges of 2,427 schools that had not opened at the time of the survey were contacted via phone.

ASER 2021 followed up on the questions asked in ASER 2020 about whether the child is provided learning support at home and who is providing it.

"The proportion of enrolled children who received learning support at home has decreased from three quarters of all enrolled children in 2020 to two thirds in 2021, with the sharpest drops visible among children in higher grades," it said.

Noting that school reopening is driving decreasing support, the report said that "among both government and private school going children, those whose schools have reopened get less support from home. For example, 75.6 pc private school going children whose schools have not reopened receive help at home as opposed to 70.4 pc whose schools have reopened. The reduction in help is driven largely by less support from fathers". PTI

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