Though only 6.6% of youth in the 14-18 age group in Kerala are not enrolled in schools or colleges according to the Annual Status of Education Report ‘ASER 2023 Beyond Basics,’ their percentage increases from just 0.5% in the 14-16 age group to 18.6% in the 17-18 age group.
The survey by civil society organisation Pratham found significant learning gaps among teenagers in rural India. The survey was conducted among 34,745 rural students aged 14 to 18 years in 28 districts across 26 States. In Kerala, it was conducted among 1,225 students in 55 villages in Ernakulam district. Of them, 814 were in the 14-16 age group and 411 in the 17-18 age group.
Perambalur in neighbouring Tamil Nadu had the lowest percentage of youth in the country in the 17-18 age group who were not enrolled in school or college — 8%. Nanded district in Maharashtra and South Tripura had the next lowest at 10.9%. Kamrup district in Assam, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand too had lower percentages of youth not enrolled as compared to that in Kerala (18.6%).
