Schoolkids’ learning levels poor: SSA report

The learning levels of the children studying in government schools in Haryana continue to be dismal, according to the latest report of executive committee of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

The SSA progress report for 2013-14 states that a recent students’ learning assessment survey revealed that the performance of Classes 3 to 5 students in mathematics and science was poor.

It said the learning levels in science were even worse than mathematics. In mathematics only, about 41% students qualified the exam while in science only about 36% students could pass the exam and the remaining failed to do so, the reports said.

It may be recalled that the reports compiled by government as well as non-governmental agencies had been expressing concern on the situation in the previous years too.

The report further expressed concern over the inability of the teachers to aptly use various tools used for the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) of the students.

It said the complete implementation of the CCE methodology and curriculum was limited in schools surveyed between August 2012 and March 2013 and 70% teachers assigned to the CCE treatment group had been trained at the time of the monitoring.

The report said the prevalence of several key components of CCE was low as only 30% teachers could demonstrate correct use of CCE sheets and only about 6% teachers used projects to evaluate students, and the use of periodic unit tests was low in these schools.

About the civil works such as new school buildings, classr o o ms, separate toilets for boys and girls, drinking water facilities, boundary walls and electrification, the report said the performance of Mewat and Palwal districts was assessed as poor for the works during 20122013 at 35% and 59% respectively, against the state’s average performance of 70%.