The Annual Status of Education Report-2023 (ASER) ‘Beyond Basics’ revealed that around 7.6% of youth are not enrolled either in school or college in Mysuru district. Around 68% of youth can read at least class 2 level text (14 to 16 age group), and only 58% can read basic English.
The ASER-2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ is a nationwide citizen-led household survey conducted by the non-profit organization Pratham, focused on 14 to 18-year-old youth in rural India and how prepared they are to lead productive lives as adults. This survey covers four aspects of these youth’s lives: their educational and career pathways, their ability to apply foundational skills to daily life situations, their digital access and skills and their aspirations for the future.
For the first time, Mysuru was picked up for the survey, and the surveyors visited 1,194 households in 60 villages. Most young people are enrolled in some educational institution, and 86.8% of 14 to 18-year-olds are enrolled in either school or college. The proportion of youth who are currently not enrolled in school or college rises with age from 3.9% of 14-year-olds to 10.9% of 16-year-olds and 32.6% of 18-year-olds, the report said. In the age group of 14 to 16 years, 2% of the youth population is not enrolled in any of the educational institutions; the percentage is 19 among 17 to 18 years.
Nationally, one major worry at the time of COVID-19 was that with livelihoods being threatened, older children would drop out of school. “That fear turned out to be unfounded. The proportion of out-of-school children and youth has been secularly declining, led by the government’s push to universalise secondary education,” the report said.
In Mysuru, when it comes to numerics of the age group 14 to 16, the report stated that 38.4% of youth can do division. This percentage is 35.3 among 17-18 age groups. About 58.9% can read Basic English between the 14 to 16 age group and it is 66.1% in the 17 to 18 age group.
As for ownership of digital devices in Mysuru, around 88.6% have a smartphone at home, 96.1% can use them, 57% have accessed online services, 81% were able to browse for information, 93% could find YouTube videos, 84.2% could bring a smartphone to do digital tasks and 93% used social media during the survey week, the report said.
