Annual Status of Education Report

Our Annual Status of Education Report is an unparalleled survey of literacy.

Along the way Pratham realized they needed to further their cause.
Changing public officials’ minds and the world’s opinion requires facts. Making decisions about how best to allocate limited resources requires data. That’s why in 2005, Pratham initiated the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a research program unlike any ever undertaken in India.

Pratham's ASER, is India's largest privately-funded survey.
Every year ASER, meaning “impact” in Hindi, measures the enrollment as well as the reading and arithmetic levels of Indian children age 6 to 14. In 2008, ASER polled over 704,000 children in 16,198 villages and 564 rural districts in India. More than 32,000 volunteers from NGOs, colleges and universities, youth and women groups participated in this effort.

ASER is amazing for its scope and efficiency.
ASER is carried out by a local organization or institution in each rural district in the country, and uses a standard set of tools and sampling frame. It is a huge undertaking. But as big as it is, the entire effort only takes 100 days from start to finish each year.

Governments rely on our data to make informed decisions.
The findings are widely distributed inside and outside the government at the national, state, district and village levels. ASER has become an important reference guide for the educational policies of both the Central and State governments. ASER’s findings have been referred to in the approach paper to the 11th Planning Commission and several state governments use the survey results to define their educational programs each year. For the last four years the report has been released by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Pratham is building on the successes of ASER.
ASER has demonstrated that it is possible to use simple, reliable and scientific methods of sampling and assessment on scale, for high impact, and at low cost. It has also been an excellent example for building nationwide local participation. ASER’s important role in monitoring the quality of education in India led to the establishment of ASER Center in early 2008.

The more we know, the better we can serve India’s at-risk children. To keep this valuable program going, make a donation now.