Bengaluru may be the nerve centre of the state and an educational hub, but it looks like it’s class 10 students in government and aided schools, have a lot of catching up to do in terms of learning outcomes
BENGALURU:The latest National Assessment Survey for class 10 students (cycle 2) released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development shows that learning levels of students in five subjects - Mathematics, Science, Social Science, English and MIL (media information and literacy) - are dismally low and below the state's learning average.
*Math gives no respite*
Bengaluru Urban (South) district has got a score of around 30 in three major subjects. In mathematics, it has got a score of 35.80 that is below the state's average score of 38.33. Students performed badly, particularly in algebra, mensuration, geometry, statistics. Similarly, in science, the district score is 34.91 while the state's average score in the subject was 38.04.
In social science, while the state's average score is 45.83, the district recorded 43.78. Political science and history were two subjects that students had the most difficulty with.
So far as Bengaluru Urban (North) district is concerned, students performed below average in three subjects namely mathematics, social science and MIL. In the first subject, the district's average score was 36.29 while in the second, it was 43.73. So far as MIL is concerned, the district recorded an average score of 49.54 even as the state's average was 54.35. Strikingly in English, the district got a good score of 51.08, way above the state's average score of 42.36.
*Bengaluru Rural performs better*
Of the two aforementioned districts, students of Bengaluru Rural performed much better securing above average scores in most of the five subjects. In mathematics, for example, students got scores above the state's average in all subjects except algebra. In science, scores were on par with the state score on all the accessed subjects.
Philomena Lobo, director, Secondary Education, Department of Public Instruction, points out that students who come to government and aided schools in Bengaluru were those who have been rejected by other schools and are from poor backgrounds with no proper exposure to education. "I am not saying that this is the sole reason but these may be factors for their bad learning levels. We have been getting below average results from this part of the state even in SSLC. Measures are being taken to improve the situation," she says.