ASER an citizen initiative

Introduction:

Facilitated by Pratham, ASER is the largest household survey undertaken in India by common people. It annually measures the enrollment as well as the reading and arithmetic levels of children in the age group years of 6-14.

ASER is carried out by a local organization or institution in each rural district in the country, using a common set of tools and a common sampling frame. In 2008, ASER reached over 7,04,000 children in 16,198 villages in 564 rural districts in India. More than 32,000 volunteers from NGOs, colleges and universities and different social groups are involed.

The survey is being conducted since 2005 and each year, the entire effort from start to finish takes only 100 days. The report is released in January every year. The findings are disseminated widely within the government and outside at the national, state, district and village levels.

In 2007, the ASER centre was established with funding from Google Inc. to institutionalize this process. The objectives of this centre are to strengthen different aspects of this process and to build capacity at state and district level individuals and institutions to design and conduct basic surveys, assessment and analysis activities in education and other social sectors.

ASER is conducted to measure the standard of local children’s learning level. Parents “send” children to school and are concerned about “inputs” parents often over-estimate what children can do.

Teachers “teach” the course for the grade level. Teachers often over-estimate what children can do. Schools are usually not structured to identify or to help those who fall behind.

Learning delayed is learning denied. Children need to learn satisfactorily at the right time to make adequate progress through the education system to complete at least the elementary stage.

Other policies like MDG goals and SSA refer to universal enrollment, retention and reduction of social and gender gaps. But there is no definition or reference to children’s learning goals.

Process of ASER:

ASER test basic reading and arithmetic problem solving ability, because a large number of children did not even basic. Only reading and arithmetic is taken to keep ASER simple and fast. In ASER children are tested individually one-on-one basis.

All children who belong to age group of 5 to 16.The survey are conducted in rural area. So that it can be useful in planning and implementation at district level. Sample of children are taken from each district, so that reasonable sample can reliable estimates and fast to do.

ASER is conducted once in October or November. This is why because middle of academic year in most states and schools has “settled” down. It is done every year to trace the progress. ASER experience suggests that there can be big changes from year to year in basic learning outcomes. Also since planning is done in every year, review of progress should also be done every year and results available before the next year’s plans are made.

In ASER children are tested in the community or in the home, it helps to get a representative data. Through it we can cover all children e.g. enrolled in govt. school, enrolled in private school and currently not in school. These all kind of children is found in home.

ASER is a common people initiative. Here common people do the survey. Local organization or institutions in a district take the responsibility. Because according to SSA guidelines, community participation is welcome and local organizations and institutions should be part of planning and review process in the district Annual Work Plan process. Indian citizens pay 3% education cess for elementary education and so need to take a look to see what progress has been made.

Impact of ASER

ASER has become an important input in the educational policies of both the Central and State governments. The findings of the survey have been referred to in the approach paper to the 11th Planning Commission and several state governments use the findings to define their educational programs each year. Since the last 4 years the report has been released by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia.