* Only 18.5 per cent of Class 3 students in Maharashtra government schools can do subtraction. * Only 20.1 per cent of Class 5 and 38.1 per cent of Class 8 students can do division. * Only 55.5 per cent of Class 5 students can read Class 2 level books. * Only 34 per cent of the schools have computers. These are some of the findings mentioned in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2022, which showed the impact of two years of Covid-19 pandemic on teaching and learning in government schools. In 2018, 28.1 per cent of Class 3 students could do subtraction, while 31.1 per cent of Class 5 children and 41.4 per cent of Class 8 students could do division. In 2022, in a steep decline arithmetic knowledge, only 18.5 per cent of Class 3 students can do subtraction as well as 20.1 per cent of Class 5 and 38.1 per cent of Class 8 students can do division. The report also shows a considerable drop in the capacity of reading a Class 2 -level textbook among school-going children. Only 26.6 per cent of the surveyed children from Class 3 can read Class 2 level textbooks, which was 44.2 per cent in 2018. In higher classes, 55.5 per cent of class 5 children can read Class 2 level books, which was 66 per cent in 2018. In case of Class 8 students, 76.1 per cent can read Class 2 books, which was 79.4 per cent in 2018. A senior educationist, Vasant Kalpande, said, “The pandemic has resulted in tremendous academic loss across India, as opposed to some other countries who realised the impact of school closure early on and reopened schools sooner.” “As children were back to school, bridge courses were offered by the education department to aid remedial teaching. But instead of following the motto 'one size fits all', teachers should have been given liberty, depending on where the school is located and the level of academic loss suffered by the students,” he added. Another alarming fact presented by the report is increasing numbers of combined classes in government schools. In all, 54.3 per cent of Class 2 students are made to study with one or more classes, which was only 40.3 per cent in 2010. Moreover, 51.3 per cent of Class V children were observed sitting with one or more classes in 2022, which was only 36 per cent in 2010. The classroom teacher ratio in government schools has dropped to 81 per cent from 87 per cent in 2010. Even as there is a new wave of digitalisation in school education, post pandemic, the ASER report shows a drop in the number of schools having computers. The percentage of schools where children do use computers is also nominal. In 2022, 34 per cent of schools had computers, a considerable drop from 45.5 per cent in 2018. But the percentage of students using computers remains the same, at 19 per cent in both the years. However, the students last year had significant access to cellphones, as the number of households having cellphones witnessed an increase from 67.5 per cent in 2010 to 95.1 per cent in 2022. Of these, 84.1 per cent households had smartphones and 88.1 per cent had Internet facility. In Maharashtra, 33 districts, 983 villages, 19396 households and 823 schools were surveyed under the ASER project. While enrolment in government schools has seen a jump from 61.6 per cent in 2018 to 67.4 per cent in 2022, the same has dropped in private schools – from 37.6 per cent in 2018 to 32.1 per cent.
