One of the world’s largest countrywide scientific survey of quality of learning in schools at district level — National Assessment Survey — carried out by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in November last year, has revealed that 52.25% of children in class VIII and 58% in class V are following the subjects being taught in their classes. Students of class III had better score with 66.11% of children following instructions in the class.

According to the survey, girls and boys in urban and rural areas in classes III, V and VIII are close in performance level. What is worrying is that the grasp on subjects among students in higher standards as class VIII is less than class III or class V. For instance, in class VIII, 47.44% girls and 44.84% boys could answer maths questions of their level, compared to 64.87% girls and 63.87% boys in class III.

In class V, only 24.5% children could show more than 75% learning when it came to environmental science and close to 20% when it came to mathematics.

NAS covered subjects which included language with reading comprehension, mathematics, environmental studies (EVS) and social studies.

The NAS is key to knowing how much students are learning properly in classes. For instance, while learning mathematics in class V, NAS found that 43.55% could identify or form equivalent fractions of a given fraction. Close to 45.24% children could explore the area and perimeter of simple geometrical shapes like a triangle, rectangle or square in terms of given shape. When it came to learning Gujarati, only 58.78% children could read and comprehend independently storybooks, news items or headlines, or even read advertisements.

In class VIII, NAS found that only 33.18% students could construct models using materials from surroundings and explain their working, followed by 35.22% children who could measure angles of incidence and reflection, while 37.68% could conduct simple investigation to seek answers to queries.