Among Indian teenagers in rural areas who can’t even read a paragraph of text, over 30% can still browse the Internet and close to 50% can find a video on YouTube, says the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Rural. The report provides several such insights into the digital prowess of high school and college students in India.
In the ASER survey, students in the 14-18 age group were asked to read a paragraph. Those who could read the words but not the sentences were said to belong to the ‘word level’. Those who could read the paragraph but not a bunch of paragraphs were categorised as belonging to ‘Grade 1 level’. Those who could read many paragraphs were said to belong to ‘Grade 2 level’. The survey was conducted in 28 districts from September to November, 2023.
Chart 1 | The chart shows the share of students aged 14-18 with different leading levels who could do digital tasks on a smartphone.
