Hyderabad: The sixteenth Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 facilitated by NGO Pratham has shown that Telangana’s government school enrollment has increased by only 3.7 percent between the year 2018 to 2021. While, other southern states have witnessed an eight percent or higher enrollment in their respective schools.
In the year 2018, Telangana saw 56.4% enrollment in its government schools which saw only a 3.7 peer cent increase. In fact, even before the onset of the pandemic, the year 2018 saw Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu register over 62.2, 69.4 and 66.7 per cent enrollment which is significantly higher than the rates of enrollement in Telangana. Even though Kerala had only 47.9 percent of its students in government schools in 2018, it saw a significant boost by 2021 with 11.9 %.
The survey was conducted in 25 states and three Union Territories via a phone base format in the months of September and October 2021 between the age groups of 5 and 16.
According to the report, approximately 30 per cent of children took tuition classes in India in 2018 but in 2021, around 40 per cent take up paid tuition classes across all genders and school types.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of smartphones has increased from 36.5% in 2018 to 67.6% in 2021. In Telangana, 79.3 percent households have access to smartphones. However, access to technology does not translate to usage as 23.9% of households in Telangana who do have phones, don’t use the same to attend online classes.