HYDERABAD: Low proficiency in reading, writing and oral reading fluency in Telugu, English and Urdu has emerged as a major concern in Telangana government schools. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) baseline assessment found that fewer than 10% of students in Classes 2 to 5 met the competency benchmarks across all assessed skills in any of the three languages.
The assessment, conducted in July, covered 19,552 primary and upper primary schools across all 33 districts. District-wise coverage ranged from 78.7% in Hyderabad to 99.4% in Jagtial. The state-level findings revealed huge gaps in foundational language skills, particularly oral reading fluency and writing.
Class-wise gaps
In Class 2, only 2.2% of students met the competency benchmark across all assessed Telugu skills, compared with 4.5% in English and 1.3% in Urdu. Oral reading fluency was also weak, with just 7.3% meeting the benchmark in Telugu, 12.6% in English and 10.4% in Urdu. In Class 3, only 4.6% of students met the benchmark in Telugu, 5.2% in English and 3.3% in Urdu. Writing was another concern, as only 11.9% met the Telugu writing benchmark, compared with 10.8% in English and 10.4% in Urdu.
In Class 4, just 4.4% of students met the benchmark across assessed Telugu skills. The corresponding figures were 9.1% in English and 6.2% in Urdu. Telugu oral reading fluency was weak, with only 8.3% meeting the benchmark.
In Class 5, overall competency was better but remained below 10% across all three languages. Only 8.8% of students met the benchmark across all assessed Telugu skills, compared with 8.4% in English and 9.1% in Urdu. Writing was also a challenge, with 20.3% meeting the benchmark in Telugu, 20.2% in English and 23.3% in Urdu. SCERT Director G Ramesh said the state aimed for at least 80% competency in each skill, rather than expecting students to achieve the conventional passing mark of 35%.