Madhya Pradesh ASER2010 experience

It was 4th February 2011 when i reached Bhopal for ASER 2010 resurvey in M.P. After 3 days of orientation we moved to our respective districts. My district was Balaghat, a big district with eight blocks. After reaching there we found that it would be better to conduct the survey in a single phase rather than two phase. So we planned to raised volunteers. We targeted B. Ed colleges for our purpose. We got a very wonderful response from the colleges and we successfully collected 54 volunteers for the survey. All volunteers were B. Ed students and were very keen to the survey.

After that we conducted our training session according to the schedule. In between the training two person from a local NGO came to the venue. They were interested to participate in the process. They tried to convince us about their creditability. Suddenly they changed their topic and came to monetary matter. They asked about our budget and I told them. After listening to the budget they became less interested. After that they start questioning on ASER reports reliability. I tried my best to convince them but they were not listening. They started advising me regarding the survey process. After listening to their advices I offered them to have a field visit with us. They went away without saying anything.

During the Survey period I was very busy and i forgot about them. After the completion of survey, while our rechecking process was going on they again came to me. Now they are with a different issue. They started blaming us that we are following a wrong process and what ever results coming is not realistic. Balaghat is a very developed district with respect of education. What ever reports come from government Balaghat always do well. Almost all students go to Pvt school. I was surprised to know about that. What a myopic analysis was that. I did not tell them any thing. I just sow them few of our formates and met few of our volunteers. After seeing the formates and listening to the volunteers they had nothing to say. They went away. After wards i went to know that actually they were messenger of District Education Department.

ASER FINDINGS:A LONG WAY TO GO

All children are in school is almost achieved, which is a great achievement for all Indians. All most all schools are having a good infrastructure. Being optimistic it is good news that The Right to Compulsory Education Act came into force on 1^st April 2010.Now it is our duty to check the quality of education. But how to do it? There are various ways e.g. checking at input level, checking the process or checking the output. We have choose the last one, checking the output i.e. if our children are going to school then what they are learning. In ASER we just tried to find out the learning level of our children. It is done at very basic level, it contains only reading and basic arithmetic. The tools which are used for child evaluation are equivalent to standard one and two level. Basically survey is done in rural India.

Findings are very interesting. Evaluation is done with children from the age group of 5 to 16. Regarding reading level only 41% of the age group can read standard 2 level stories across India in 2007. In 2008 also the percentage was same as 2007. But in 2009 the percentage fall marginally to 40%. This is a serious matter of concern. The picture seems more disappointing when it seems class wise reading level. In the year of 2007 it was found that more than 40% of standard five students cannot read standard two level stories. In the year of 2008 the percentage increased to 44%. It was 48% in the year of 2009. If a child who is studying at standard five and cannot read standard two level stories then it is big question mark on his or her learning level.

The level of basic arithmetic’s is also not optimistic. Only 30% of children, who belongs to the age group of 5 to 16 can solve division problem. In the year of 2008 the percentage falls down to 27%. It was 29% in 2009. Class wise data show a much clear picture about the situation. Almost 58% students from standard five cannot solve division problem. In 2008 it increased to 63%. There was a little improvement in 2009 data in comparison to 2008, the percentage decreased to 62%. These data shows that even after spending five years in school students are not able to do some simple arithmetic’s which are useful in our daily life.

The situation is very serious as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan is going to finish its term but our main objective is yet to achieve. Now Right to Compulsory Education Act is coming but the problem with the Act is that, it is concern with inputs rather than learning levels. As a citizen of India we are paying 2% education chess so it is our duty to make accountable the responsible authority to get best from our investments.

ahinor mon jurua botorot tumalo manot pore.

ene hobo nalagisil dekhun..

tumak eri aha bahu dinei hol.....tathapi...

umar khobor mur ucharat nai

tumi sprite bhal paisila nohoi....

ach! tumi ajikali jeans pindhane..

nak fuli ,payal??????

AIDC t nami bhaba neki mur kotha...?

tumi diya dami kamij keita uwali goise.

moi ajikali sarojini marketor dersa takia kapur pindhu.

manuhar ucharoloi jaboloi pusak nalage

lage eta mon.....

tumar mon tu dangor asil.....

dangor hapon dekhisila.....

moi bhoi khaisilu hapunar daurat tumak heruam buli..

hapunar bujat tumi bhagori pora naitu........

nabhagoriba , moot rakhiba manuhor kakh sapiboloi lage

eta dangor mon jot thake haru haru hapun....

AN INCREDIBLE FEELING

I am a consultant of ASER center, a research organisation basically works with elementary education. ASER is a part of Pratham an NGO work with elementary education. Recently I have visited Nagaon district to monitor our Pratham Learning Center programm. Our office is in Nath gaon near Bebejia. I and Sarat our district co-ordinator planned to visit a PLC near by. It was arroun three o' clock in the afternoon.

We were on a bike and Sarat was in a great spirit. The way to the PLC center was very attractive, green paddy fields and big fisheries were eye catchy. The sun ray was also playing their extreme trick with our eyes. I was lost in the nature, suddenly I heard a delightful sought " mama ahi gol....... school jau bol.." (uncle is coming ..lets go to the school...). Just following the shout Ihave seen few guys are returning from their school and the reaction was seeing Sarat. When we reached the center I noticed three girls were waiting there. Sarat introduced me to them, they were three volunteers of the center. They are pursuing their college degree from a local college. They are contributing to their society in that way. In the mean time we were surrounded by almost 50 children. They were very curious about me. And complaining against Sarat that he comes only twice in a week but they want him more frequently. they started their activity based learning program. The curious parent were standing near by. When i started interaction with them they told us that children are getting benefit from the program and they are now more interested to come to the center than playing. Few parents apologies that their child were not present on that day. It was very interesting that they are giving more interest in PLC than School........ And dont ask about the hopitality we have had that day. We have drunked almost 30 cups of tea just to honer their interest and just imagine our condition after that.....................

ILLUSION: ASER an citizen initiative

ILLUSION: ASER an citizen initiative

ILLUSION: ASER an citizen initiative

ILLUSION: ASER an citizen initiative

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.