Bhubaneswar, March 8: The 21st joint review mission team of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan that visited the state to review the programme, have appreciated the role of the school and mass education department in achieving the goals and objectives of the programme.

In their report submitted to the Centre, the team experts said that they found the learning proficiency of Class I students 'reasonably good'.

The team visited Balasore and Mayurbhanj and interacted with the district project officers, teachers, and students. They also visited primary and upper primary schools, special training classes and schools under Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya scheme.

The report said: 'Classroom observations of Class-I students showed that the children are reasonably proficient in reading. The approach adopted in the schools is word to alphabet. Going by the limited classroom observations, children seem to have unusual reading abilities, not seen generally in Class I.'

'However, it was not clear how writing is handled in the classrooms. A discussion with the teachers indicated that their perception about writing includes writing words, copying from the textbook and paragraph writing that is often linked to the prescribed textbooks,' the report said.

Regarding the teaching practices, the experts said an integrated teaching approach is adopted with an integration of mathematics, environmental studies and language subjects in Class I and II. Classroom transactions were found to be better in schools under the KGBV scheme. The experts also appreciated some child-friendly strategies such as Suravi, Surjan Aamo-Kaamo Reading Mela, Math Mela, Prashna Manch) etc.