New Delhi: The pace of improvement in school standards related to the right to education, such as toilet, drinking water, mid-day meal, library, computer, and electricity connection in schools in the country is very modest and still a quarter (23.9 percent) of schools do not have access to drinking water. Even water is not available. Also, in about a quarter of the schools (23.6 percent), students need help to use the toilet facilities.

This information has been revealed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 released regarding the condition of schools. According to the report, there has been a slight improvement in the school standards related to the right to education at the national level. For example, usable toilets were available in 74.2 percent of schools in 2018, which increased to 76.4 in 2022.

Similarly, in 2018, 74.8 percent of schools had drinking water facilities, which increased to 76 percent in 2022. In the same period, the number of schools where students use books other than textbooks rose from 36.9 percent to 44 percent.

It is clear from the report that in 2022, 12.5 percent of schools did not have drinking water facilities, and 11.4 percent of schools had drinking water facilities, but drinking water was not available. Suppose both are combined, then in the year 2022 also, such as in schools where drinking water is not available for the students. In that case, their figure is 23.9 percent (about a quarter).

It has been said in the report that 2.9 percent of schools in the country did not have toilet facilities, while 21 percent of schools had toilet facilities, but they were not usable. In about 23.9 percent of schools, students need toilet facilities.

According to the report, 10.8 percent of schools did not have separate toilet facilities for girls, and 8.7 percent of schools had locked toilets.

According to the Education Report, 21.7 percent of schools do not have a library, and 77.3 percent do not have computers available for children’s use.

The report states that electricity connection is available in 93 percent of the schools. Kitchen facilities are available for mid-day meals in 89.4 percent of schools.

According to the report, 68.1 percent of primary schools were given uniforms for all classes, while 51.1 percent of upper primary schools were given uniforms. In 22.5 percent of primary schools and 32.7 percent of upper primary schools, the dress was not given in any class, or it is not known.

In the Annual Status of Education Report, in the year 2022, a survey of 19,060 villages and 3,74,554 houses has been done covering 616 districts. During this, 6,99,597 children in the age group of 3 to 16 years were contacted. 27,536 volunteers from 591 organizations participated in this work.

The proportion of government schools with fewer than 60 students has increased every year over the past decade.

According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the number of government schools in the country where the number of students studying is less than 60 has increased yearly for over a decade.

According to the report, in the year 2022, Himachal Pradesh (81.4 percent) and Uttarakhand (74 percent) have got the maximum number of such small schools.

At the national level, the number of such small schools was 17.3 percent in 2010, 24 percent in 2014, 29.4 percent in 2018, and 29.9 percent in 2022.

The Annual Status of Education Report is a nationwide, citizen-led household survey that provides a picture of the schooling and learning of children in rural India. The first ASER survey was conducted in 2005 and repeated annually for 10 years.

ASER 2022 is the first field-based ‘baseline’ survey after a gap of four years. This also comes at a time when children have returned to school after a long period of closure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, a decline in the number of small schools has been registered in some states. Among these, such small schools in Uttar Pradesh were 10.4 percent in 2010, which has come down to 7.9 percent in 2022. On the other hand, such small schools in Kerala were 24.1 percent in 2010, which remained at 16.2 percent in 2022.

It has been said that no significant change was observed in the attendance of students and teachers at the national level. Average teacher attendance was recorded at 85.4 percent in 2018, which marginally increased to 87.1 percent in 2022.

At the same time, the average student attendance remained around 72 percent in the last few years.