Bhubaneswar, Jan. 27: Around 85.2 per cent students of Class VIII in rural schools of the state cannot read Standard II text. While nearly 97 per cent of them fail to recognise numbers beyond 10, 1 per cent cannot even identify numbers.

These findings were revealed in the “Annual Survey of Education Report-2010”, conducted in rural areas across the country by an NGO named Pratham and its affiliate organisations. Vice-president Hamid Ansari released the report last week in New Delhi.

This survey, the only private audit of elementary education in the country, covered nearly 31,000 children between the age of three and 16 across 30 districts of the state. Those who underwent the survey had to take a test in Oriya language in an informal setting.

According to the report, in Class VIII, only 2.7 per cent students can recognise letters, while 3.6 per cent can read just words but not Class I text or higher.

District-wise data shows Balangir, Koraput, Keonjhar, Rayagada and Kandhamal recorded the lowest percentage of students of Class I-II learning levels who could read letters or more. The districts that fared best for the said level were Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Khurdha and Dhenkanal (more than 90 per cent). However, with 76.1 per cent students fulfilling the Class I-II learning levels, Orissa seemed ahead of other states such as Tamil Nadu (63 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (67.3 per cent), Bihar (68.5 per cent), Rajasthan and Puducherry (both 70 per cent), Jharkhand (71.5 per cent) and Assam (75.5 per cent).

Similarly, in case of numbers, 77.7 per cent students of Class VIII fail to do double-digit subtractions, while 35.6 per cent cannot do divisions.

Coming to the performance of districts, Koraput and Nabarangpur have the lowest number of students at Class III-V level who are able to do subtraction.

The national average for Class VIII students’ inability to subtract and divide numbers stands at 79 per cent (higher than Orissa) and 32.6 per cent (lower than Orissa), respectively.

The survey said around 52.5 per cent students in Class IV to VIII, mostly in private schools, had attended paid tuition classes. Interestingly, around 36.2 per cent and 54.4 per cent of Class I students in government and private schools, respectively, opt for paid additional classes.

This trend was observed mostly in the districts of Balasore (82.4 per cent), Bhadrak (82.1 per cent), Khurdha (76.6 per cent), Ganjam (75.5 per cent) and Cuttack (73.9 per cent).

Among states, Tripura (77.2 per cent), West Bengal (76 per cent) and Bihar (55.8 per cent) had highest number of students taking private tuitions. With the exception of Class IV (68.7 per cent) and VI students (72.9 per cent) in private schools, paid tuitions showed a declining trend when compared with last year’s figures.

Reacting to the findings, educationist Abani Boral said: “It is an exaggerated report. We have to delve into a deeper analysis. A child going to a city school by car and being provided with all facilities will definitely have a better receptive capacity than one in an economically and socially backward block or in tribal and Harijan-dominated areas. We have to find out if the schools had adequate number of teachers, if they are competent enough to teach or not, whether books were supplied to children and so on.”

Education minister, Pratap Jena agreed with Boral’s views. He said: “It is unfair to compare our system of education with private schools or Saraswati Sishu Mandirs. A major chunk of our schools surveyed are in the most backward regions. We are taking all initiatives for quality improvement and trying to revive our education sector, not just through textbooks but also through co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. Our position is far better than what it was a year ago. Given time, things will definitely improve.”