Daily Mains Booster Analysis (DMBA) The Hindu Editorial Analysis // 27 January// 2024 Discussion

In the last 20 years, discussions revolving around schooling and basic learning in education have led to significant changes in policies and priorities in India. Recently, the ASER 2023: Beyond Basicsreport was conducted in 28 districts across 26 states, involving 34,745 youth aged 14-18. Focusing on adolescents, the report provides new ideas on how to improve learning outcomes for young people in India and make the most of the country's demographic dividend. What is the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2023: Beyond Basics)? • About: • ASER is a nationwide citizen-led household survey facilitated by NGO Pratham Education Foundation that provides a snapshot of the status of children’s schooling and learning in rural India. • The ‘basic’ ASER collects information about enrollment in preschool 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. • First implemented in 2005, the 'basic’ ASER survey was conducted annually until 2014and switched to an alternate-year cycle in 2016. • Objectives: • The 2023 survey focused on 14-to-18-year-old children in rural India, specifically on their ability to apply reading and math skills to everyday situations, and their aspirations. • The recent survey set out with the overarching objective of generating evidence on diverse aspects of youth development in rural India, that stakeholders across sectors could use to inform policy and practice. • The 2023 survey explored the following domains: • Activity: What activities are India’s youth currently engaged in? • Ability: Do they have basic and applied reading and math abilities? • Digital awareness and skills: Do they have access to smartphones? What do they use smartphones for, and can they do simple tasks on their smartphones? • Aspirations: What do they aspire to become? Who are their role models?