Odisha Students Fare Better In English But Fall Behind National Average In Maths

Bhubaneswar: Class III students of Odisha have fared better than their counterparts across the country in Foundational Learning Study-2022 in reading and writing skills in English, Odia and Hindi while lagging a little behind in Urdu and Maths.

According to the study released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Wednesday, 97 per cent of students from the state could identify initial and final sounds of English words against the national average of 95 per cent.

While 92 per cent could listen and comprehend four to five texts of varying lengths correctly compared to 85 per cent nationally, all students could decode letters and 94 per cent of those interviewed (799 students of 81 students) could read  80 per cent and more words correctly and fluently against the national average of 75 per cent.

Similarly, 95 per centof  students could understand the meaning of sentences of varying lengths.

The survey further revealed that only 6 per cent did not have the basic grade-level skills; 15 per cent had limited skills; 14 per cent had sufficient skills while 65 per cent exceeded global minimum proficiency (67 per cent were girls and 62 per cent boys) against the national average of 33 per cent.

In Hindi, 99 per cent of students could listen and comprehend four to five texts of varying lengths correctly against the 85 per cent national average. While 97 per cent could decode letters (reading aloud letters and syllables) against the national average of 90 per cent, 43 per cent could correctly read Hindi words with comprehension in one minute compared to 23 per cent nationally.

In numeracy, however, only 50 per cent of the students interviewed could read numbers up to 9,999 and 55 per cent could compare pairs of numbers to identify the bigger number against the national average of 65 and 67 pc respectively.

The survey revealed that the students from Odisha were better at solving problems using paper and pencil than fingers or mental maths. They scored lower than national average in number identification and discrimination (identifying bigger numbers), addition and subtraction, division and multiplication, fractions, and identifying patterns comprising numbers and shapes.

While 41 per cent of  students could complete addition and subtraction, 44 per could identify application of number operations in real-life situations and provide the correct answers. Only 53 per cent could understand and use multiplication tables to solve problems against the national average of 71 per cent. Only 36 per cent could do division and 40 per cent solve problems based on measurement.