Class VIII Students Unable To Read Class II Texts: Study In Rural Odisha

New Delhi: The Right to Education (RTE) was enacted in 2009 with a call to improve quality of education across schools. Enhancing quality of learning was key to the success of the Act.

Almost 10 years later, very little seems to have changed in the classroom. The learning outcome remains abysmally low. So much so that 72 per cent of class VIII students in rural Odisha fail to read a class II level text. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASAR) for 2018, 1.5 per cent of the student of the same class even fails to read a letter. This findings flies in the face of both the state and central government launching a pitched 2019 election campaign to woo voters with their report cards.

1. The report, which focuses only on rural area household survey presented a grim outcome of the learning standards between classes I to VIII. We have especially focused on class VIII with the presumption that by this time the children would have had a fare degree of progress in school education. The survey however reflects poorly on the learning outcome at the level as well. According to it, over 42 per cent of the class VIII students are unable to do a simple division. When it comes to subtraction, 20 per cent fail. If we talk about numbers between 10-99, 29 per cent of the students fail to recognise them.

2. Performance of students in private schools are a step better than government, even if not impressive. As per the survey, around 59 per cent of the private medium schools can do subtraction as compared to 49 per cent in government schools.

3. If we take the age group into consideration, then 43 per cent of the children between 14-16 can do divisions as compared to 36 per cent between the age group of 11-13.

4. One of the main focus of RTE is adequate infrastructure faculties and adequate classrooms. But as per the survey close to 80, per cent of the class VIII children were observed sitting with one or more classes. And 66 per cent of the students in class IV were taking lessons with other classes inside a single room.

5. Some years back a CAG report had revealed misappropriation of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan funds in some Odisha districts. In one instance it reported that Rs 1.04 crore was withdrawn and retained by 58 headmasters, without executing 80 infrastructure works allotted to them. Out of those 58 headmasters, 14 retired, four expired and two absconded while 38 were continuing in service.

6. According to the ASER report, there has been a slight improvement in reading level of class V student who can at least read standard II level text. The number has slightly improved by about 2 percentage points touching 50.3 per cent in 2018 as against 47.9 per cent in 2016.

7. The only solace which Odisha can draw is that the quality outcome in its classes is more or less the same with other states.

8. States, however, exhibit very different patterns of attendance. States with student attendance of 90 per cent or more in primary schools in 2018 were Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Those with teacher attendance of 90% or more in 2018 were Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.

9. In primary schools, student attendance improved by 3 percentage points or more over 2016 levels in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh.

10. In 2018, about 8 out of 10 schools had a playground available for students, either within the school premises or close by. A playground was accessible in more than 90 per cen of schools in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Maharashtra. But more than a quarter of all schools in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand did not have access to playground.

11. According to report, the proportion of children (age 6-14) who are not enrolled in school has fallen below 3 per cent for the first time and stands at 2.8 per cent in 2018. Similarly, in 2018, the overall proportion of girls in the 11 to 14 age group out of school has fallen to 4.1 per cent. This figure is more than 5 per cent in only 4 states.

12. The report said that the percentage of children (age 6-14) enrolled in private school was 30.6 per cent in 2016 and it remained almost unchanged at 30.9 per cent in 2018.