Enrolment rates are climbing. So what explains the sorry state of India's education sector?

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2017 will shortly be up for discussion among policy experts. Based on household-based surveys that cover children in the age group 3-16 across almost all rural districts of India, ASER provides estimates of children's schooling status and their ability to do basic reading and arithmetic tasks. Aniruddha Ghosh and Sujan Bandyopadhyay analyse the prior survey findings and conclude that innovative intervention is required over boosting enrolment.