81% of Class V Kids in TN Can't Read English
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CHENNAI: Nearly 65% of class V students in rural areas of Tamil Nadu can’t read even a class II textbook in their mother tongue, 45% don’t know subtraction and nearly 81% can’t read simple English sentences, the Annual Status of Education Report for 2009, compiled by Delhi-based NGO Pratham Foundation, has revealed.
The findings of the survey, which had a sample size of 33,000 students in both private and government schools, showed that while 19.4% of class V students could read words and 7.2% could only identify letters, 3.7% could read nothing. Only During the survey, the children were first asked to read a short story, failing which they were asked to read out a couple of lines. If a child was unable to read the words, he or she was then asked to identify the letters.
Vasanthi Devi, convenor of the KALVI Alliance for Education and co-ordinator for the survey, said, “While the state has been able to do a good job in getting children into schools and in making efforts to introduce child-centric pedagogies like the activity-based learning methodology, it still has to look at the learning outcomes. What is the benchmark for a child to go to class V or even VIII?”
The report, however, found that the state had a healthy enrolment ratio with just 1.4% out-of-school children in the 11-14 age group, lower than the national average of 6%. The percentage of out-of-school girls between 11 and 14 years at 1.1% was also lower than the national average of 6.8%.
The report said that not even half the number of students in class VIII could read easy sentences in English. Also, a dismal 42.5% of class VIII students were able to do subtraction. On a positive note, the report praised the state for scoring over others in getting out-of-school children back to schools, in ensuring that 92.6% of kids below five years were enrolled in anganwadis and 97% of children in the 11-14 age group go to school.
The survey was carried out in private and government schools in 870 villages in 29 TN districts. The data was collected by volunteers from 23 NGOs and a college.
Senior officials of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan said they didn’t believe the report and that they had "their reservations about its credibility".
Former SSA special project director MP Vijaykumar said, "The NCERT studies, which are more reliable and have a bigger sample size, gave us a thumbs up last year. The Pratham report is not foolproof. I don’t dispute the fact that TN may not be topping the list in reading and math, but I can’t accept that we are the worst."
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CHENNAI: Nearly 65% of class V students in rural areas of Tamil Nadu can’t read even a class II textbook in their mother tongue, 45% don’t know subtraction and nearly 81% can’t read simple English sentences, the Annual Status of Education Report for 2009, compiled by Delhi-based NGO Pratham Foundation, has revealed.
The findings of the survey, which had a sample size of 33,000 students in both private and government schools, showed that while 19.4% of class V students could read words and 7.2% could only identify letters, 3.7% could read nothing. Only During the survey, the children were first asked to read a short story, failing which they were asked to read out a couple of lines. If a child was unable to read the words, he or she was then asked to identify the letters.
Vasanthi Devi, convenor of the KALVI Alliance for Education and co-ordinator for the survey, said, “While the state has been able to do a good job in getting children into schools and in making efforts to introduce child-centric pedagogies like the activity-based learning methodology, it still has to look at the learning outcomes. What is the benchmark for a child to go to class V or even VIII?”
The report, however, found that the state had a healthy enrolment ratio with just 1.4% out-of-school children in the 11-14 age group, lower than the national average of 6%. The percentage of out-of-school girls between 11 and 14 years at 1.1% was also lower than the national average of 6.8%.
The report said that not even half the number of students in class VIII could read easy sentences in English. Also, a dismal 42.5% of class VIII students were able to do subtraction. On a positive note, the report praised the state for scoring over others in getting out-of-school children back to schools, in ensuring that 92.6% of kids below five years were enrolled in anganwadis and 97% of children in the 11-14 age group go to school.
The survey was carried out in private and government schools in 870 villages in 29 TN districts. The data was collected by volunteers from 23 NGOs and a college.
Senior officials of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan said they didn’t believe the report and that they had "their reservations about its credibility".
Former SSA special project director MP Vijaykumar said, "The NCERT studies, which are more reliable and have a bigger sample size, gave us a thumbs up last year. The Pratham report is not foolproof. I don’t dispute the fact that TN may not be topping the list in reading and math, but I can’t accept that we are the worst."
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