New project to improve learning levels of state govt school students

Students in 1.1 lakh government-run schools in Maharashtra will be involved in a new project to improve their reading, writing and mathematical skills.

Students in 1.1 lakh government-run schools in the state will be involved in a new project to improve their reading, writing and mathematical skills.

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The project by the school education and sports department is in response to a recent study that said that barely a fifth of class five students in city could solve a mathematical problem or read a sentence in elementary English.

The department will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with Pratham, a non government organisation, to facilitate the project for students from Class 1 to Class 10.

A pilot of the project will be conducted for three months across schools in August.

The objective of the programme is to equip children to meet the learning level required at their age as per the Right to Education Act (2009).

The latest Annual Status of Education Report, based on a survey conducted by Pratham, had found that only 22.6% of Class 5 students could solve simple division problems, 21.2% could read basic English sentences and 58.3% could read a Class 3 level text.

Similarly, only 44.4% of Class 8 students were able to divide and only 50% could read English.

“In this project, students will be divided based on their learning levels and not their grades. Teachers will be trained to teach students in such groups,’’ said Rajendra Darda, school education minister. Darda added that once the pilot is completed, the project will be extended to other classes.

A special eight-member team consisting of six members from the State Council of Educational Research and Training and two experts from Pratham, will enforce the project in every district.

“Currently, teachers are focused only on completing the syllabus. But in this project teachers will be given learning levels. It will be their job to ensure that students have met these levels at the end of every exercise or chapter,’’ said Usha Rane, director content and training at Pratham.