LUCKNOW: Children studying in Class 3 in the cities of Varanasi and Lucknow cannot read or recognise numbers between 1 to 100. The findings of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019 show over 46 per cent in Lucknow and 45.9 per cent in Varanasi kids are unable to read or recognise numbers.
The figures show that the standard of education continues to remain grim in Uttar Pradesh.
The state administration has brought about a number of changes in government schools to improve the level of learning. Besides improving the logistics and infrastructure, NCERT syllabus has been introduced at the primary level and the medium of teaching has been converted to English.
However, the nationwide report prepared on the basis of the survey conducted in 26 districts across 24 states including Lucknow and Varanasi of Uttar Pradesh doesn’t paint a good picture when it comes to the level of learning among early learners.
As per the official figures, 1,514 villages, 30,425 households and 36,930 children in the age group of 4-8 were covered under the survey. The survey covered 60 villages, 1207 families and 1494 kids in the age group of 4-8 years to assess the level of knowledge in them.
In this report, the focus was on the early years, reporting on the schooling status as well as on a range of important developmental indicators for children in the age group of 4-8 years.
In the state capital Lucknow, where all the policies for improving the standards of education take shape, the picture is grim. At least 28.1% of kids studying in Class 1 were not able to identify even numbers from 1-9. Just over 47% fail to recognise numbers from 1-100.
Similarly, 41.1% of students of class I cannot identify the syllables, 32.9% can identify the syllables but cannot read the words. Likewise, 23.6% of students of Class III cannot identify syllables. While 6.7% of students of Class III can’t read numbers from 1-9 and 53.8% can’t read numbers from 11-99.
Only 46.7% of class 2 kids could recognise 1-100 numbers but 14.7% of children failed to identify 1-9 numbers.
The survey also observed that 53.9% class 3 and 75% class 2 children in Lucknow could not read class 1 texts.
Meanwhile, in Varanasi, 45.9% class III children do not recognise the numbers till 99 while 31.2% class I children could not recognise 1-9 numbers in the district.
Only 16.8% class I children could not read even a letter, the survey observed. As per the survey, 46.5% class III and 58% class II children in Varanasi could not read class I texts.
The survey also reflected that 33% of the four-year-old children are either not registered in any school or are drop out. Merely 3.4 % kids of four years of age are registered in government schools while 49.8% kids of same age are enrolled in private schools.
The survey also establishes that parents prefer to send boys to private schools while for girls they choose government schools.
As per the countrywide figures, for age 4-5 years, against 56.8% girls enrolled in government schools, there were only 50.4% boys. This was just opposite in private institutions where against 49.6% boys there were 43.2% girls for the children of same age.
Similarly, for age 6 to 8 years, some 61.1% girls were enrolled in government schools against 52.1% boys. Whereas in private schools 47.9% boys go to private schools against 39% girls indicating that parents prefer private school for boys and government schools for their daughters.