Class 10 students in city fare below state average: Survey
The second cycle of the National Achievement Survey (NAS) was conducted across the country to test the competencies of students
Class 10 students from suburban schools in Mumbai seem to have performed poorly on most learning outcomes, reveals a recently released report of the National Achievement Survey (NAS). The report reveals that the average learning outcomes of students in the city is less than that of the state average in most areas.
While students from Mumbai city scored slightly above average on most subjects, those from the suburban schools recorded lower performance that the state average.
The second cycle of the National Achievement Survey (NAS) was conducted across the country in order to test the competencies of students in five different subjects i.e. mathematics, science, social science, english and modern Indian languages (MIL). A total of 1.5 million students from 44,514 schools in 610 districts across the country participated in the 2017-18 survey. NAS is conducted across government, government-aided and private schools.
The average performance mean (average percentage of students getting correct answers) in mathematics was 27.11 for Mumbai suburban, while the state average was 33.57. Only 20-30% Class 10 students across 80 schools in the city could solve mathematical problems involving statistics trigonometry, number system etc. Even as Mumbai city recorded a higher average in mathematics, over 58% students got scores ranging between 0-35. Even the so-called ‘backward’ districts, such as Palghar and Gadchiroli, performed better than the city’s suburban schools in these two subjects.
“Year on year, students from aided and government-run schools have a problem understanding concepts in mathematics and science. One important factor that can be held responsible for the worrying trend is the poor teacher training in these areas, coupled with the absence of a child-friendly syllabus” said Neha Subhedar, a retired mathematics teacher.
Students from the suburban schools in the city also performed poorly in science with the performance mean of 29.25, way lower than the state mean of 37.03. In the social science subjects, the lowest scores were recorded in political science (34.24) and history (29.44).
“There are many problem areas that need to be addressed both at the policy and pedagogical level. First and foremost, learning should be made application based. Merely conducting exams doesn’t help in bettering learning outcomes of students. Also, teachers should be taught to teach as per the needs of students instead of teaching something that they are comfortable with” said Sudam Kumbhar, principal, Shailendra Education Society's high school.