The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released on Wednesday, January 16, stated that more than 86.8 per cent of youngsters in the country aged between 14 to 18 are enrolled in educational institutions, while more than half of them opt for the humanities stream, as per the report by PTI.

The report further noted small gender gaps in the enrollment and pointed out notable differences between the age groups. It also added that older youth are more likely to not enroll in educational institutions. "The percentage of youth not enrolled is 3.9 per cent for 14-year-old youth and 32.6 per cent for 18-year-olds," the report said.

The report also showed the spike in the enrollment percentage of the students in the age bracket of six to 14 years had gone up from 96.6 per cent in 2010 to 96.7 per cent in 2014 and from 97.2 per cent in 2018 to 98.4 per cent in 2022.

The report said that 55 per cent of students choose to study Humanities in Classes XI and XII, followed by Science and then Commerce.

It also pointed out that females are less likely to be enrolled in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) streams than males.

Other findings

— 5.6 per cent of youngsters in the country are currently undergoing vocational training or have been enrolled in other related courses

— 25 per cent of youngsters in the age group of 14-18 years cannot read a Class II-level text fluently in their regional languages.

— Several older students dropped out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a loss of livelihood.