HYDERABAD: The National Achievement Survey (NAS) second cycle data for class 10 students released by NCERT has put the focus again on quality of education being imparted in government schools. Subject-wise performance evaluation of students from government and private schools from the state, revealed the performance of government school students to be poorer than private schools in all districts, apart from Hyderabad where the performance was on par.
Looking at the data, it should not be a surprise that parents prefer shelling out more money in sending their children to private schools for education than government for better education. As per available data, more than half of the about 48 lakh students studying in various schools in Telangana, are studying in private schools.
For example, while the performance of students from government schools in Nalgonda was 31 per cent and 33 per cent in Mathematics and Science, it was 39 per cent and 40 percent respectively by private school students. Similarly, while the performance of government school students in Karimnagar in Social Science and English subjects was 38 per cent and 34 per cent respectively, it was 46 per cent and 56 per cent in private schools.
Only in Hyderabad, the difference between performance of government and private school students was not significant.
Urban-rural divide also deep
Significant difference in performance of students in various subjects has also been observed with respect to whether a student belongs to rural or urban area, indicating the disparity in quality of education received by students depending on where they belong from.
In the NAS it has been observed that in all districts of the state the performance of students in urban areas is higher than those from rural areas. For example, in Rangareddy district while the performance of students in Mathematics and Science in rural areas was found to be 33 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, in the urban areas it was 41 per cent in each subject. Similar is the case in all other districts.
Caste affects spoken English
The NAS also highlights the need for ensuring that education reaches every student equitably, regardless of the caste of the student. Significant difference has been found in the performance of students from the general category and those from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
A difference of almost 5-10 per cent was observed in the performances of students from general categories as compared to those from reserved categories. The difference was prominent in all the subjects that students study at the high school level.
However, the difference is most pronounced, as much as 15 per cent, in case of English language. For example, while the students belonging to the general category had an average performance percentage in Mathematics of 41 per cent while English had 50 per cent. On the other hand, among the students from Scheduled Castes it was 31 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.