82.8% youth in Kohima enrolled in formal education

DIMAPUR — About 82.8% of youth in the age group between 14 and 18 years in Kohima were enrolled in some formal education institutions and 52.1% youth were enrolled in government institutions, while 17.2% youth were not enrolled anywhere.

This was revealed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 ‘Beyond Basics,’ which was released in New Delhi on Wednesday. ASER is a nationwide citizen-led household survey that provides a snapshot of the status of children’s schooling and learning in rural India. ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ puts the spotlight on youth aged 14 to 18 years in rural India, an age group that was also the focus of ASER 2017.

Among those age group between 17 and 18 years in Kohima, 23.2% male were not enrolled in any formal education institutions as compared to 12.1% females. Additionally, 1.5% were enrolled in some form of vocational training and 29.8% were engaged in some work (other than household work) for at least 15 days in the month prior to the survey.

According to report, among all youth aged between 14 and 18 in Kohima, 78.9% could read at least a Standard-II level text in the ASER reading test, while 32.3% could do at least division in the ASER arithmetic test and 90.6% could read at least sentences in the ASER English test.

Overall, approximately 30% could do the tasks of everyday calculations. Of those who could read at least a Standard-I level text (ASER reading test), 54.8% could read the text on a medicine packet and answer at least 3 out of 4 questions about it.

Of those who could do at least subtraction (ASER arithmetic test), 64.1% could do a task for managing a budget, 25.5% could apply a discount and 3.1% could calculate repayment.

Across most of those application-based tasks, males outperformed females.

In Kohima, 94.5% youth had a smartphone at home and 97.3% youth reported being able to use a smartphone. Among males, the proportion was 98.6% and among females it was 96.3%. Of those who could use a smartphone, 41.6% males had their own smartphone as compared to 25.5% of their female counterparts.

Among all those who could use a smartphone, 69.3% did at least one education related activity in the week prior to the survey as compared to 93.4% who used any social media. While a high proportion of youth used social media in the reference week, a far smaller proportion knew how to access its safety features like blocking a profile, making a profile private etc.

In Kohima, 77.7% could bring a smartphone to do digital tasks out of which 60.1% could do the task of setting an alarm, 77.9% could browse the internet to find information, 12.5% could use Google Maps and 86.9% could find a YouTube video.

First implemented in 2005, the ‘basic’ ASER survey was conducted annually until 2014 and switched to an alternate-year cycle in 2016. The ‘basic’ ASER collects information about enrollment in pre-school and school for children in the age group of 3 to 16, and assesses children aged 5 to 16 one-on-one to understand their foundational reading and arithmetic abilities.

In the intervening years, ASER dives deeper into different aspects of children’s schooling and learning in rural India.

It mentioned that the ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ survey was conducted in 28 districts across 26 states, reaching a total of 34,745 youth in the age group 14-18 years. One rural district was surveyed in each major state, with the exception of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where two rural districts were surveyed.

In Nagaland, the ASER 2023 survey was conducted in Kohima by volunteers from department of Education and department of Teacher Education, Nagaland University Meriema Campus and also from Kohima Science College, Jotsoma.