THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state has begun focusing on further improving the quality of school education, especially in the primary sections, in the wake of national surveys indicating a drop in students’ reading skills and basic mathematical ability in lower classes.
To support the general education department’s efforts in this direction, the pro-Left Kerala School Teachers’ Association (KSTA) has come out with a project named ‘Karuthal 2023’ to improve the academic standards of students in 1,000 select schools across the state in the first phase.
Interventions planned under the project include various educational packages to improve the basic capabilities of primary students by imparting special sessions after regular classes. As many as 10,000 teachers affiliated with KSTA will be deployed for the programme across the state.
“Special modules have been prepared for languages, science, mathematics and history. Besides improving academic standards, the project also aims to instill values such as equality and gender justice among students at an early stage,” said N T Sivarajan, general secretary, KSTA.
He said that modules have been prepared taking into account the diverse learning needs of students. However, teachers would also improvise on the modules in case a student needs additional help in a particular subject. The support of parents and the school concerned will be ensured for the successful implementation of the project, he added.
The state-wide inauguration of ‘Karuthal 2023’ was carried out by General Education Minister V Sivankutty at Vazahamuttom Government High School in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. Terming the project as ‘exemplary’, the minister noted that ‘Karuthal 2023’ would be the ideal academic intervention in the state’s schools that have received major infrastructure upgrades over the past many years.
FALLING MERIT
The latest intervention comes in the backdrop of surveys indicating a dip in primary education standards in most states. For instance, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022, released earlier this year showed that the percentage of children in Class III in government or private schools in Kerala who were able to read at the level of Class II dropped from 52.1% in 2018 to 38.7% in 2022. The ASER survey had also shown that only 26-30% of Class V students in the state could perform basic mathematical tasks such as subtraction or division