The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 has revealed improvements in reading and arithmetic skills among Tamil Nadu’s school children in Classes 1 to 8 since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, learning outcomes still show worrying trends. The report, released on January 8, assessed children's proficiency in reading, arithmetic, and digital literacy across India.
According to ASER 2024, only 37% of Class 5 government school students in Tamil Nadu could read a Class 2-level text, an improvement from 26% in 2022 but still below the 46.3% recorded in 2018. The trend was similar for Class 8 students, where 62.2% in government schools could read Class 2-level text, slightly lower than 62.8% in 2022 and significantly below 75% in 2018.
Among Class 3 students in government schools, 13.2% could read Class 2-level text, a notable improvement from 4.7% in 2022 but still below the 11.6% observed in 2018. In private schools, the corresponding figure for Class 3 was 9.5%, compared to 5% in 2022 and 11.6% in 2018.
At the national level, 23.4% of Class 3 government school children could read a Class 2-level text, up from 16.3% in 2022 and 20.9% in 2018. Tamil Nadu was one of the few states to show over 10% improvement in Class 5 reading levels, along with Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Girls consistently outperformed boys in reading across Classes 3, 5, and 8. Among Class 5 students, 40% of girls could read Class 2 text compared to 31.2% of boys. The gender gap was also evident in Class 8, where 68.9% of girls demonstrated reading proficiency versus 59% of boys.
Arithmetic skills continue to be a challenge, with 51.2% of Class 3 students able to recognize numbers up to 99, but only 25.6% could perform subtraction. Among Class 5 government school children, 20.2% could do division, an increase from 14.7% in 2022, but still below 27.1% in 2018.
The percentage of Class 3 government school students who could do at least subtraction increased to 27.6%, up from 9.3% in 2022, but only slightly above the 23.6% recorded in 2018. Among private school students, 28.2% could perform subtraction, up from 16.9% in 2022 but lower than 30% in 2018.
For Class 8 students in Tamil Nadu, 40% could do both subtraction and division, while 32.4% could subtract but not divide. Among government school students in this group, 37.8% could perform division, a drop from 43.5% in 2022and 49.6% in 2018.
School enrollment rates in Tamil Nadu have declined since 2022, mirroring national trends. Enrollment for boys in Classes 1 to 5 dropped from 71.1% in 2022 to 62.2% in 2024, while for girls, it fell from 75.4% to 67%. Similarly, for Classes 6 to 8, enrollment for boys declined from 76.2% to 71.3%, and for girls, from 80.8% to 75.3%.
At the national level, boys’ enrollment in Classes 1 to 5 decreased from 71.7% in 2022 to 64.1% in 2024, while girls’ enrollment fell from 77% to 70.7%. In Classes 6 to 8, boys’ enrollment dropped to 67.2% from 72.9%, and girls’ enrollment fell to 73.9% from 77.7%.
Despite declining enrollment, digital literacy showed improvement. The percentage of government school students in Tamil Nadu with access to smartphones increased from 83.9% in 2022 to 88.3% in 2024, a significant jump from 38% in 2018.
Among surveyed 14-year-olds, 84.7% could set an alarm on a smartphone, while 85.9% of 15-year-olds and 89.5% of 16-year-olds could do the same. Similarly, 77.7% of 14-year-olds, 80.5% of 15-year-olds, and 85.7% of 16-year-olds could browse the internet to answer general knowledge questions, such as identifying India’s first female president.
Video search proficiency was also high, with 88% of 14-year-olds, 89% of 15-year-olds, and 92.3% of 16-year-olds able to find videos on YouTube. A significant 95.2% of 14-year-olds and 97% of 16-year-olds could share videos on the platform.