After a prolonged decline due to learning losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year showed a modest recovery in foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) among school students, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024, released on January 28, 2025. In the last two years, between 2022 and 2024, there has been a 7-10% jump in reading and arithmetic. ASER 2022 showed that after nearly two years of school closures due to the pandemic, there had been a massive drop in the already low learning levels of students across the country. So, this jump in ASER 2024 reflects a recovery to pre-COVID levels.

ASER, a survey of 6.5 lakh children, found that 76% of Class 3 students, 55.2% of Class 5 students, and 32.5% of Class 8 students couldn’t read at a Class 2 level; over 66% of Class 3 and Class 5 students struggled with simple math. The majority of children in Classes 3 and 5 were unable to read a Class 2 level text in their local language or solve simple math problems.

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