Low reading and math levels continue at Indian schools

New Delhi January 15, 2019. Reading and math levels of Indian school students continue to be very low, according to the 2018 Annual Status of Education Report by Pratham. The levels for girls are worse overall than for boys. Students in private schools performed better than those in government run schools.

While the number of children enrolled in school is high, some of them are not benefiting due to being unable to attend regularly. The proportion of children (age 6-14) who are not enrolled in school was 2.8% in 2018. However the proportion of girls, in the 11 to 14 age group, not attending school was 4%.Student attendance in schools stayed at about 72% at all school levels, while teacher attendance was about 85%.

Pratham is a major education charity in India. (http://www.pratham.org/). Founded in 1995, its focus is high-quality, low-cost, and replicable ways to try to improve the quality of school education. Its American branch, Pratham USA, is a popular recipient of donations from Indian American professionals.

The survey notes that about a quarter of the students in the age group 14 to 16 could not read at the Standard 2 level, that is texts used in schools for the six to seven age group. In math, more than half the 14-16 year old students could not figure out a time question; about half could not calculate how many tablets are needed to purify a given volume of water; and about two-thirds were unable to make the correct decision about purchasing books and computing a discount. In all cases, fewer girls than boys had the right answers.

Pratham’s survey data show that of all children enrolled in Standard VIII, the 14 year age group, about three quarters could read at least a seven year old level. This number is unchanged from 2016. About half of the children enrolled in Standard V, ten year old, can read at least a seven year old level, up slightly from the level in 2016.

In math, the tests assessed whether a child can recognize numbers from 1 to 9, recognize numbers from 10 to 99, do a 2-digit numerical subtraction problem with borrowing, or correctly solve a numerical division problem (3digit by 1-digit). Only about a quarter of the children in the age seven group knew how to subtract. A similar minority of ten year old students could solve a division problem. Among 14 year old students, about 44% of could correctly solve a 3-digit by 1-digit numerical division.

Private Schools perform better

From 2006 to 2014, there was a steady rise in the proportion of children (age 6-14) enrolled in private school. Since then the proportion of students in private school has stayed roughly flat at about 31%. Across all age groups, students in the private schools performed better in both the reading and math surveys than those in government run schools.

In 2018, the surveyors visited 15,998 government schools in about 600 districts in rural India. About 350,000 households and 550,000 children in the age group 3 to 16 were surveyed.

To access the full report visit: http://www.asercentre.org/