Learning Curve

Pratham’s Aser has helped identify learning gaps among primary school children.

- Sonal Khetarpal

AROUND 57 PER CENT of 14-18-year olds could not solve a basic division problem. Forty-seven per cent of them couldn’t read a simple sentence in English.

These figures from ASER (Annual Status of Education Report, 2017) hold up a mirror to India’s status of elementary schooling and basic learning. Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham, is behind the ASER initiative, which has been revealing the status of India’s elementary education since 2005. “One of the significant contributions of ASER is that it has brought the learning agenda to the centre stage,” says Banerji, who has launched large-scale learning programmes to educate students in urban and rural India.