Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Prolonged school shutdowns due to Covid-19 have set students back by about 10 years in terms of their basic reading and maths skills, a new survey showed. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2022, children’s basic reading ability is down to pre-2012 levels and their maths skills to 2018 levels.
“The percentage of children in Class 3 in government or private schools who can read at Class 2 level dropped from 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022,” the survey said. Similarly, the percentage of 5th grade students who can at least read a text at the Class 2 level, dropped from 50.5% to 42.8%.
Notably, states that had higher reading levels in 2018 witnessed a sharp decline in 2022 with Kerala dropping from 52.1% to 38.7%, Himachal Pradesh from 47.7% to 28.4% and Haryana from 46.4% to 31.5%. The most affected states in terms of reading ability are Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with their figures dropping from 22.6% to 10.3% and from 18.1% to 5.2%, respectively. Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Haryana recorded a decline in maths skills, the survey said.
