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Here is the report card of India’s Class 5 students: 45% in reading comprehension, 46% in maths.
The latest NAS for Class V has reported discouraging figures, showing that a vast majority of students about to enter middle school face enormous challenges in reading, basic mathematics and other subject knowledge.
A basic feature of a good system is a feedback mechanism. Only when the system is capable of generating feedback does it know where it stands and can take corrective action. The center has instituted the National Achievement Survey as a periodic check to gauge learning levels in Class III, Class V and Class VII. One of the stated aims of the report is to ascertain whether students have basic competencies in language, maths and science and social studies using multiple-choice based questionnaires. Whether our system is capable of initiating corrective action and seeing it through is a topic of a future discussion.
For now let us focus on the findings of the latest National Achievement Survey for Class V, published by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT). Expectedly the report has turned up discouraging figures, showing that a vast majority of students about to enter middle school face enormous challenges in reading, basic mathematics and other subject knowledge.
For the uninitiated, the survey, which aims to assess learning levels at different stages of education, is conducted by the NCERT every 3 years. The report on the fourth and latest cycle of the survey shows that most Class V students have scored between 0 and 50% in reading comprehension, mathematics and environmental studies.
The report also discovered a drop in learning levels compared to the previous cycle in 2010-'11. Only 3 states (Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana) show no significant change compared with the previous cycle.
Testing times
At a glance, the report says, Class V students scored 45% in reading comprehension, 46% in maths and 50% in environmental studies.
However, 43% of all students scored 35% or less in reading comprehension (see chart below). Only 11% got 75% or more.
The technique to test reading comprehension is by posing multiple-choice questions based on a short passage in order to understand students’ grasp of ideas, ability to draw inferences and interpret what they read. This is an example of a reading comprehension question.
The overall results in reading comprehension were as follows:
Maths questions tested knowledge of the number system, ability to do simple calculations and basic geometry and measurement. Overall, in maths, 37% students scored between 0 and 35%, 26% scored between 36 and 50% and 10% students scored higher than 75%.
How do the states fare?
The state-wise disparity in results is vast and surprising. 55% students in NCR got 0 to 35% correct answers in reading comprehension, compared with 38% Uttar Pradesh.
Only 2 states (Kerala and Mizoram) and 2 union territories (Daman and Diu, Dadra Nagar and Haveli) returned respectable figures of more than 50% overall result. Results of other subjects also show similar variations.
Manipur is the only state to hold the distinction where students breached the 75% mark with over 20% crossing the threshold across all 3 tests. Kerala is the only state where girls outperformed boys in all three subjects. Most of the country didn’t display much disparity between rural and urban areas with the exception of Uttar Pradesh, where rural students scored significantly higher in reading comprehension and maths.
Social classification
The survey data by social group shows that over all, Other Backward Class students and those classified as “Others” have the same scores in reading comprehension and environmental studies, but OBC students score lower than Others in maths.
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students consistently scored the lowest in all 3 states. But here, variations between states exist. For example, in Arunachal Pradesh, it is the exact opposite with Scheduled Tribe students scoring significantly higher than all other categories in all tests. A similar story plays out in Uttar Pradesh with OBC students scoring the highest scores in reading comprehension and environmental studies.
Over all the takeaway from The National Achievement Survey’s latest report, titled What Students of Class V Know and Can Do, is that a majority of students continue to be let down by schools, teachers and education administrators responsible for their learning. It also shows the ineffectiveness of knee jerk reactions in terms of short-term fixes and NGO-led interventions that many states introduced after the cycle 3 survey four years ago, have made no difference to children who were in Class 2 at the time.
At the upcoming 11th meeting of the Inter-State Council – a body that discusses and makes recommendations on matters of interest and concern to states – on July 16, ways to improve learning outcomes is on the agenda. Hopefully, the National Achievement Survey report, with all its limitations, will force the governments to question themselves and their policies and ask what it is they are doing wrong and why they cannot get basic school education right.