New Delhi: Schoolchildren who engage more enthusiastically in classroom discussions and read stuff beyond textbooks are likelier to learn better than others, an analysis of the results of a survey has revealed.

"Asking questions and participating in classroom discussions enhances the chances of better performance by 14.5 points," Indrani Bhaduri, head of the education survey division at the NCERT, said. (See chart)

"Reading newspapers, magazines, novels and other literature apart from textbooks, studying in the mother tongue, having educated parents and taking part in sports and games tend to have a positive impact on learning too."

Having many siblings, though, takes a toll on performance, as does absenteeism, the study found.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training carried out the analysis, using last year's National Achievement Survey data on the learning outcomes of 2.2 million children from Classes III, V and VIII in government schools. The NCERT had collected the background data of the children in advance.

Educationists stressed that the hidden but most important lesson from the analysis is that the teacher's role is crucial - for it's up to the teacher to promote the classroom activities found most beneficial to learning.

"I would have expected learning in the mother tongue to be the most critical factor in improving learning outcomes, but the analysis highlights that interactive classrooms help enhance children's learning (the most)," said Poonam Batra, Delhi University teacher and former member of the National Council of Teacher Education.

"This clearly shows that the teacher is a critical agent in this process. The teacher is key to ensuring that the children can participate in class discussions in their mother tongue. The discovery that reading material other than textbooks improves student performance also underlines the role of the teacher."

Ashok Ganguly, former chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education, said the findings were particularly important since classroom teaching in India tended to be conducted in the form of a monologue by the teacher. He said teacher-training needed a revamp.

"The classroom situation has not changed in India. The transaction is monologue-like, with the students being passive recipients," he said.

"What the teachers need to do is to explain (the subject) and get the students to engage (with the class), explore (ideas) and extend the knowledge to real-life situations. Then evaluate the students."

Ganguly called for sincere efforts to upgrade the performance of schoolteachers. "The focus has to be on revamping teacher-training and on continuously upgrading the teaching and evaluation process."

He said the association between a larger number of siblings and a lower level of learning needed to be researched in depth.

Following the analysis, the NCERT has recommended a wider introduction of pre-primary education in the existing schools, making the mother tongue the medium of instruction and encouraging the reading of reference books, among other things.