The Annual Status of Education Report survey: monitoring learning levels of children in rural India

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey is a household-based survey of school-aged children in all rural districts in India. It is the only annual survey that yields data on children’s basic learning levels in this country. It evolved out of the work of a non-governmental organisation called Pratham. Since its inception, Pratham’s work has focused on helping underprivileged children to learn reading and arithmetic. In order to gain an understanding of the skill levels of the children with whom they were working, and to track the effectiveness of their programs, Pratham staff members developed simple one-page assessment tools. These tools served as the basis for the assessment tools that are now used in the ASER survey. The ASER survey has been conducted every year since 2005. Initially the survey was managed from within Pratham’s existing organisational structure. In 2008 the ASER Centre was established as an autonomous unit within the Pratham network, and this unit has been responsible for the survey since then. The ASER survey is described as ‘citizen-led’. This description applies not only because the data collection activities are completed by volunteers in each district, but also because the data are collected in each village in a way that engages the locals, and thereby raises awareness of local issues of schooling and learning levels, and triggers discussion about possible solutions to these issues.