Srinagar: Amid the School Education Department’s trumpeting about “community classes” during the Covid-19 pandemic, Jammu and Kashmir has been found to be among the worst in terms of community involvement in the learning process of school children during the pandemic, according to the provisional Annual State of Education Report (ASER) 2020.
As per the report, more than 40 percent of school students in Jammu and Kashmir were not helped by any community member during the pandemic.
Of the 59.3 percent school children in J&K, who took help from a community member, only half were assisted by their parents or caregivers, the ASER-2020 Wave I (Rural), conducted in September, reveals.
The ASER-2020 Wave I had surveyed 1650 students enrolled in Classes 1-12 in fourteen J&K districts. A total of 1174 households in 405 villages were surveyed on a phone-based format, which was used for the first time in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the report, of the children in J&K (including Ladakh), who reported to have taken help from a community member, only 50 percent were assisted by their parents or caregivers and 56.3 by a village head or ward member.
Meagre percentages of 2.5, 8.8, 6.3, 3.8 and 13.8 of the children in the region were helped by an NGO or a local volunteer, older children, Anganwadi workers, SMC members, and others, respectively, the survey found.
As per ASER-2020 Wave I, community involvement in children’s learning process was the highest in Manipur at 96.6 percent.
Among the top performing states in terms of the community involvement in the learning process of the children are Bihar (88.3 percent), Jharkhand (83.7 percent), Punjab (85.1 percent), West Bengal (80.9 percent), Uttarakhand (78.9 percent), Madhya Pradesh (77. 43 percent), Maharashtra (76 percent) and Telangana ( 72.7 percent).
The ASER, which is facilitated by the NGO, PRATHAM, has been surveying school children in rural India on basic learning parameters since 2005. From 2016, the ASER switched to an alternative-year cycle of the survey wherein during odd years a different aspect of learning is focused on.
For example in its 2017 edition, the ASER-Beyond Basics focused on the special aptitude of children in the age group 14-18 years across 28 districts of India. Likewise, in 2019, ASER-Early Years surveyed pre-schooling of children in the age group 4-8 years and their abilities on a range of important development indicators across 26 Indian districts.
This year’s ASER was disturbed by the Covid-19 pandemic, making it impossible for the surveyor to conduct the survey in its entirety. Nonetheless, the provisional report released by the surveyors has focused on the effects of the pandemic on distance learning of children.

Irshad Khan