ASER 2022: In UP, Bihar and Jharkhand rising number of students taking private tuitions

The proportion of children in classes 1 to 8 taking paid private tuition classes increased from 26.4 per cent in 2018 to 30.5 per cent in 2022, notes ASER 2022

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The increase has been uneven, with some states registering a major rise compared to others. (Graphics by Abhishek Mitra)

Written by: Sourav Roy Barman

3 min readNew DelhiJan 18, 2023 11:54 PM IST First published on: Jan 18, 2023 at 04:08 PM IST

The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released on Wednesday indicates that private tuition, which rose between 2018 and 2022, could have been a factor in helping some children score better over others.

Firstly, at the national level, the proportion of children in classes 1 to 8 taking paid private tuition classes increased from 26.4 per cent in 2018 to 30.5 per cent in 2022, notes the report.

But the increase has been uneven, with some states registering a major rise compared to others. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand, the proportion of children taking paid private tuition increased by 8 percentage points or more over 2018 levels.

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“Bihar and Jharkhand are high tuition states – 70 per cent children in Bihar and 45 per cent in Jharkhand are taking tuition in 2022 as compared to only 10 per cent children in Himachal Pradesh and 15 per cent in Maharashtra. It is entirely possible that this supplemental help in the form of tuition was successful in restricting the learning loss in these states,” said Director ASER Centre Wilima Wadhwa.

The learning outcome survey shows that in Bihar and Jharkhand, the percentage share of students in class 3 who could read standard II level text were 12.3 and 11 in 2018 and 12.9 and 9.5 in 2022 respectively. In Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, the share dropped from 47.4 per cent and 44.2 per cent to 23 per cent and 26.1 per cent respectively.

In the case of arithmetic, Bihar improved its numbers between 2018 and 2022, with the share of students in class 3 who can do at least subtraction rising from 18 per cent to 21.2 per cent. Jharkhand also improved its numbers from 14.8 per cent to 16.3 per cent respectively.

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Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, meanwhile, have fewer students in 2022 compared to 2018 who can solve basic subtraction problems. In Himachal Pradesh, the share has slipped to 31.3 per cent in 2022 from 42.4 per cent in 2018, while in Maharashtra it has dropped from 281. per cent to 18.5 per cent during the same period.

At the class V level, Bihar had 30 per cent students in 2022 who could do division, up from 24.1 per cent in 2018. Jharkhand registered a rise from 15.6 per cent to 20.8 per cent. In contrast, Maharashtra saw the share of children able to varry division in this category come down from 31.7 per cent to 20.1 per cent while in Himachal Pradesh it reduced to 38.1 per cent from 51.5 per cent.

Wadhwa added that tuition could also be behind the lower learning loss in math as compared to reading as “anecdotally we know that tuition is used more for subjects like math and science rather than for reading.”