Shillong, Jan 29: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 offers an insightful look into education in rural Meghalaya. It reveals notable progress alongside critical gaps in foundational learning, school infrastructure, and digital literacy at the state level.
Conducted by Pratham, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 nationwide survey provides critical insights into the state of education in rural areas. It focuses on reading, arithmetic, and other foundational learning skills.
However, when compared to the rest of the country, Meghalaya ranks lower for several educational parameters.
On school enrollment, only about 38.4% of children aged 6-14 were enrolled in government schools, well below the national average of 66.8%. As regards children aged 15-16 who are not enrolled in school, the figure is 13.9% as compared to the country’s average of 7.9%.
Regarding literacy and numeracy, in standard III, 50.1% of children in Meghalaya could read a Std II level text, which is relatively close to the national average of 50.4%. However, only 7.2% could do division, which is significantly below the national figure of 27.8%
This data shows that while literacy levels are on par in some areas, numeracy and overall educational participation need substantial improvements.
On the dropout rates, among children aged 15-16, Meghalaya had a dropout rate of 13.9%, higher than the national average of 7.9%.
As regards digital literacy, while 94.5% of households in Meghalaya have smartphones which is higher than the country’s average, only 53.6% of children can use them effectively for tasks such as setting alarms, browsing for information, or finding YouTube videos. This is lower than many other states.
Only 38.4% of children reported engaging in at least one educational activity online during the reference week, compared to the national average of 57%.
STATE SITUATION :
The data for Meghalaya reveals that school enrollment for children aged 7 to 16 remains strong, with a continued preference for government schools. However, private institutions are gradually gaining prominence in certain areas. Encouragingly, the dropout rate among girls aged 11 to 14 has decreased compared to previous years, signalling progress toward achieving gender parity in education. Data from six out of the state’s seven districts was taken for the survey.
Despite these gains, challenges persist in older age groups. Enrollment figures for children aged 15 to 16 slightly declined, particularly among girls, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to support continued education at higher levels.
The report’s assessment of foundational literacy showed encouraging trends. By 2024, approximately 31.1% of Grade III students in government schools could read at the expected Grade II level, marking a significant improvement from earlier years. This progress reflects ongoing efforts to strengthen early literacy.
However, arithmetic skills remain a concern. Only a small fraction of Grade V students demonstrated the ability to perform division tasks—a skill typically expected by Grade III. This discrepancy underscores the need for enhanced numeracy-focused teaching strategies.
For example, among children in Std III, 2.4% cannot even read letters, 15.5% can read letters but not words or higher, 36.5% can read words but not Std I level text or higher, 26.1% can read Std I level text but not Std II level text and 19.5% can read Std II level text. These figures highlight the uneven distribution of reading abilities even within the same grade, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to support foundational literacy.
One of the most striking findings from ASER 2024 is the surge in digital literacy among Meghalaya’s rural youth, driven largely by widespread smartphone access. Nearly 95% of surveyed households reported owning a smartphone.
Among children who could use smartphones, a substantial number engaged in educational activities online during the survey’s reference week. Despite this promising trend, the report highlighted gaps in safe and responsible digital usage, with many children unaware of basic online security measures such as blocking unwanted contacts or setting secure passwords.
The survey painted a mixed picture of school infrastructure. On the positive side, 92.6% of schools had kitchens for preparing mid-day meals—a vital initiative for ensuring children’s nutritional needs are met.
As regards drinking water facilities, 65.6% of schools had drinking water available and 10.7% of schools had no facility for drinking water at all. 23.8% had a facility but no water available on the day of the survey.
Regarding toilets, 62.3% of schools had usable toilets, 31.2% had toilet facilities that were not usable and 6.6% had no toilet facility whatsoever. For girls, 46.7% had no separate provision for girls’ toilets.
As regards library facilities, 73% of schools had libraries, but only 17.2% of schools had library books being used by children on the survey day. 9.8% of schools had libraries but the books were not in use.
On computer facilities, the survey found 96.7% of schools had no computer available for student use while 1.6% had computers that were in use by students.
The availability of teaching-learning materials (TLM) and uniforms showed marked improvements, signalling better resource allocation.
