Overall student performance dips in Gujarat, Bengal: Study

India’s school education success story has a big bloomer -- overall student aptitude has fallen in four states, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tripura.

Updated on: Feb 7, 2012, 01:21:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan

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India’s school education success story has a big bloomer -- overall student aptitude has fallen in four states, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tripura.

The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) tested ability of over 10,000 students of class II, V and VIII across India for languages, mathematics, and environment sciences. The students were tested for 40 topics in each subject in the schools.

The national average performance of students in the three subjects ranged between 40 to 70%, slightly better than the results of a similar NCERT study a few years ago, said a presentation made to HRD ministry last week. The best performance was in languages and worst in mathematics, which witnessed a slight fall in learning levels.

Four non-Congress ruled states Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tripura witnessed a fall in performance of students in three subjects tested by the body under the HRD ministry.

Gujarat's fall in standards came as a surpirse as the state is considered economically and educationally forward. The biggest fall in performance was recorded in environment sciences of 3.18% followed by mathematics (-2.44%) and languages (-0.75%).

The Gujarat government is planning to revamp the school curriculum. "An exercise has been undertaken by the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) and we can hope better results in the next round," an official said.

The naxal affected Jharkhand, the state with uncertain governance, had seen the maximum dip of about six percent in student learning ability. Students there were among worst performers in mathematics and environment sciences. However, girls performed better than boys in mathematics.

The maximum improvement in learning levels was recorded in Uttar Pradesh, but the officials attributed it to poor results in the last NCERT survey of 2007. The best learning ability is still among students of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.

Fact box

Languages: Performance of 14 states improved, of seven fell and others was almost same as last NCERT survey. In four states boys were better and in seven girls outshined them.

Maths: 13 states reported better results, 12 showed a decline and no change in performance was recorded in five states. Girls did better than boys in six states and children in rural schools did better than those in urban areas.

Environment sciences: Students performance in 22 states improved, in five dipped and remained unchanged in three. Girls did better than boys in more than half of the states.

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

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