New Delhi, Jan. 13: The reading ability of India’s children has stagnated over the past four years while their mathematical skills have declined despite unprecedented expenditure on elementary education, a leading non-government organisation has warned.

Reading ability has dropped marginally over the past year, cancelling out the benefits of preceding years, a study of 564 of India’s 583 districts by the NGO, Pratham, has revealed.

Fewer students in each class, from Class III to VIII, could perform sums involving division compared with 2004-05, when the UPA came to power.

The findings, released in a study today, are significant because India has increased its funding on education significantly in recent years.

The ongoing 11th five-year plan has allocated for education five times the funds reserved in the previous plan.

The UPA also introduced a two per cent education cess on all central taxes four years ago. All the money collected from the cess goes into a fund called the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh which is used to supplement budgeted funds for primary education.

But the Pratham study — Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER), 2008 — suggests that though the increased funding has led to increased enrolment rates, students who go to school are not improving in reading or math.

The study tested reading ability by asking students between Classes I and IV to identify letters. Four in 10 Class I students had failed to identify letters in 2006, and the proportion was nearly identical in 2008.

Students from Classes III to VI were asked to read from a Class II textbook.

Sixty-eight per cent Class VI students could read the text in 2008, down from 70 per cent the previous year.

To test their mathematical skills, the students were asked to perform sums involving division, read time on a clock and count the value of a set of currency notes.

Seventy-five per cent of Class VIII students had successfully carried out these tasks in 2006. The proportion dropped to 65 per cent in 2008, the study says.

Students in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, traditional laggards in education, have performed better in mathematics than those in Kerala, a topper in many education parameters.

Over 77 per cent of Class V students in Madhya Pradesh could solve a sum involving division, compared with 43.7 per cent in Kerala.