BENGALURU: Learning ability among children in Bengaluru Urban and Rural is woefully low and below the state average, according to the Child Rights Index (CRI) report released by the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Thursday.
Bengaluru Urban shows that only 17.6% of children from Class 3 to 5 can read Class 2 textbook.
It is 17.3 % for Bengaluru Rural children. Only 44.7% of children in Bengaluru Rural and 49.7% children in Bengaluru Urban can solve simple subtraction problems.
This is below the state average of 34%.
The report has suggested strengthening the quality of education, infrastructure and learning methods in the poor performing districts.
The lockdown during Covid-19 has had an impact on the reading ability and problem-solving ability of children.
Four years later, children have not come up to the pre-pandemic level in their learning, said the report.
The report is an outcome of the study by S Madheswaran and B P Vani from Institute for Social and Economic Change.
They have also used findings from the Annual Status of Education Report 2024. In rural Karnataka, the percentage of children from Class 3 who can read Class 2 level text is 32.4% for boys and 35.6% for girls.
Similarly, the report stated the arithmetic ability of the children has also been very poor over the years and across different classes.
“It is very disappointing to see that in Rural Karnataka, only 35.3% boys and 39.9% girls of Class 5 can solve a simple division problem,” the report stated.
Lokesh Talikote, a teacher, and president of Recognised and Unaided Private Schools Association, said, “This is not limited to government schools, it is the same in private schools too. Most of the teachers who complete BEd lack teaching skills. Last time, when we conducted an interview to hire teachers at a private school, we couldn’t filter a skilled candidate who could teach well. On top of this, few teacher training programmes are organised for government school teachers. They must unlearn and learn so that children are made capable of reading, writing and problem solving.”
He highlighted how the state board textbooks have remained the same for 20 years.
“The last panel formed to revise textbooks was Baraguru Ramachandrappa Committee. Most of the students have moved to pursuing CBSE and ICSE to access quality education and learn lessons relevant to the world of AI instead of reading the same syllabus in the state board textbooks.”
Madan Padaki, co-founder, Head Held High Foundation, said, “It is necessary to provide incentives to teachers when they spend time in classrooms teaching new methods at schools which are included in the education policies these days.
Because they feel that their work hours have increased. This is how you keep them motivated. Besides, parents must pay attention to the learning outcomes of the child as they spend more hours within the family.
They are to be seen as an equal actor in the ecosystem of education. You cannot place the responsibility on teachers and schools.”
The story is reported by Rashmi Patil for The New Indian Express