Annual Status of Education Report (rural) 2013

The ASER approach differs in fundamental ways from that of other large-scale learning assessments. The guiding principles of the model can be summarized as 1) household-based assessment, so as to include ALL children – those in government schools, private schools, and not in school; 2) assessment of children’s mastery of basic reading and arithmetic, rather than grade level competencies, using tools that are simple to administer and easy to understand; 3) involvement of ‘ordinary people’, rather than experts, in conducting the assessment and disseminating the results; and 4) the generation of estimates at district, state, and national levels, so as to facilitate local level discussions, planning and action.