NCERT survey tells UP’s Mathemagic story

There is one unifying factor for Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav- the students of Uttar Pradesh, whose learning abilities increased the most in India during the combined period of their regimes, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jul 3, 2008, 02:07:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

There is one unifying factor for Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav the students of Uttar Pradesh, whose learning abilities increased the most in India during the combined period of their regimes.

According to National Council for Education Research and Training, the learning ability of students in UP schools have improved by 13.63 percentage points from 41.45 in baseline year (2001-02) to 56.19 in mid-term appraisal (2007-08) the highest across India. The increase testifies the jump in number of students who cleared NCERT’s learning ability tests for Mathematics, Environment Sciences and Languages since 2001-02.

The achievement is significant because learning levels of students in eight states have fallen during the period. Among them were Manipur with a fall in mean percentage of 21 points followed by Tamil Nadu (8.61), Andaman and Nicobar Island (5.45) and Haryana (4.54). The states that recorded an improvement were Himachal Pradesh with an increase in learning level by 13.5 per cent followed by Karnataka and Kerala

The survey was of 84,322 students and 14,810 teachers across 266 districts in 33 states and UTs with 79 per cent schools from rural areas. The survey was not conducted in Bihar.

Among three subjects, the worst performance was recorded in Mathematics, while students scored most in Languages. But, UP, had a different story. There the maximum improvement in learning levels (14.58 per cent) was recorded in Mathematics.

HRD ministry officials accorded the change to appointment of more teachers in government schools under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, especially for Mathematics and Sciences. “Community participation and more number of teachers have maximum impact on the achievement of students,” the NCERT said, in one of its findings.

UP also did better in Environment Sciences, where the improvement reported was of 14.74 per cent. In Languages, Himachal tipped UP with improvement score of 13.89 per cent as compared to 11.57.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.