Haryana govt school students make the grade with saksham exam

CHANDIGARH: When the learning levels of students from Classes 3 to 8 in Haryana government schools were tested in September under the ‘saksham ghoshna’ examination, the result was unimpressive.

Five months on in February, the state government again held the exam. The authorities heaved a sigh of relief. “The result has been a huge success. The assessment of the students’ papers was done by a third party, “ Dr Rakesh Gupta, project director, chief ministers good governance associates (CMGGAs), said.

“From next year, we have decided to assess students of Classes 9 and 10 also. English will be another subject of this exam.”

TESTING COMPETENCE

The three-year-old ‘saksham’ Haryana programme is an initiative of the education department to assess and then improve the learning levels of government school students.

The September exam was conducted on a random basis in 5,500 schools selected from 119 blocks of 22 districts.

“In the September exam, no block was declared saksham. But in the February exam, 22 blocks from across 14 districts were assessed as saksham in all 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 grades,” a government spokesperson said.

As per official data, just 64,793 students of third to middle standard opted for this exam in February. The largest number of 6,619 students of Hisar district sat in this exam, while Faridabad recorded the lowest attendance with 1,152 students. In Karnal district, 3,215 students were assessed in comparison to 3,975 students of Sirsa. In nine districts each, more than 3,000 students appeared in the exam.

The Classes 3 to 5 students were assessed in Hindi, mathematics and environmental science (EVS), while Classes 6 to 8 pupils took the science, mathematics, social studies and Hindi papers across the state’s 119 blocks.

SCORING PRACTICE

A block gets the tag of ‘saksham’ where more than 80% students score over 50% marks in the ghoshna exam. Another level is ‘near saksham’ where more than 60% students have to score over 50% marks, while a block is ‘not saksham’ if less than 60% students score over 50% marks.

Dr Gupta said 93 blocks were declared saksham in Class 5, while in Classes 6 and 8 almost half of the blocks were saksham with 64 and 65 blocks, respectively, achieving this benchmark. At least 40 blocks made it to saksham in grade 7.

A block is disqualified where data analysis indicates mass cheating.