BENGALURU: In rural Karnataka, the reading abilities of students from Class 4 to 8 have dropped. While 47.3% of students were able to read a Class 2 level text in 2014, only 42.1% could do so in 2016.
Similarly, the
number of Class 5 children from
rural private schools who could solve simple division problems dropped from 33.2% in 2014 to 28.1% in 2016, according to the World Development Report (WDR) 2018 — Learning To Realize Education’s Promise.
Schooling, the
World Bank report released early this month says, is not the same as learning. Arguing that without learning, education will fail to eliminate extreme poverty, it points out that even after several years in
school, millions of children across the globe cannot read, write or do basic maths.
The study found that in rural India, just under three-quarters of students in Grade 3 could not solve a two-digit subtraction such as 46 – 17, and by Grade 5, half could still not do so. Over 80% of Class 2 students could not read a single word of a short text. The same applied to students of the class who could not even perform a 2-digit subtraction.
“Though India has achieved a rise in enrolment, it is yet to translate itself into high learning outcomes,” it says.
In Andhra Pradesh, low performing kids in Class 5 could not answer Class 1 questions and even average performers of Class 5 had a 50% chance of doing so. In New Delhi, an average Class 6 student performed at a Class 3 level, and in Class 9, they performed at Class 5 level.
“While students are learning only a little from year to year, early learning deficits magnify over time, which results in students in higher classes not being able to perform when faced with questions of lower classes,” it observes.
VP Niranjanaradhya, fellow, Centre for Child and Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, says dip in the number of learning hours, especially in gover nment schools, and the perpetual teacher shortage are the reasons for poor learning levels.
“Even today in Karnataka, there are two teachers for five subjects. There should be at least one teacher per subject. Added to this, teachers are overburdened with non-academic work. There is also poor monitoring of what the child is learning,’’ he explains.
Warning of ‘a learning crisis’ in global education, the report says schooling without learning is not just a wasted development opportunity, but also a great injustice to kids. “Innovation in classrooms won’t have much impact if technical and political barriers at the system level prevent a focus on learning in school,” it adds.