File picture of students of a government school

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 30: An intiative of the school and mass education department has made learning easy for slow learners.

The department has started remedial learning programme for slow learners following regular reports of declining learning levels in government schools across the state.

The project titled Sahaj will cover students of Classes II to VI in about 53,000 schools. The department has already conducted a survey in 900 schools across the state to identify the competency level of students. Based on the report, they were categorised as “slow learners” and “self-learners”.

“The remedial classes have been planned for slow learners to raise their academic standard to a minimum level based on their ability to read, write and do arithmetic. Teachers are paying individual attention to such students,” said a senior officer of the department. He said the classes had begun in June and will culminate in August.

“We are conducting unit tests every week to assess the progress of the students,” the officer said. An end-line test will be conducted soon after which the progress made by the children will be assessed and future modules planned.

Survey reports released by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and the NCERT during the past few years have indicated falling academic standards of students. In the survey conducted by the department, Nabarangpur was at the bottom of district rankings followed by Nuapada, Kalahandi, Balangir, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar.

The learning outcomes were better in districts such as Balasore, Cuttack and Kendrapada, which topped the list. The survey showed that the deficiency was in the medium of instruction and not in the level of understanding. It also showed that the students performed better in mathematics than language.

The department has decided to set up 218 seasonal hostels to check students’ migration along with their parents when the latter move out of the state looking for jobs. These seasonal hostels will come up in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Bargarh, Balangir, Nuapada and Kalahandi. Around 162 seasonal hostels were constructed last year.