File picture of a class in progress

Bhubaneswar, May 21: The school and mass education department conducted a Learning Assessment Study across the district that revealed loopholes in the basic knowledge of students. The report was released today.

Almost 30 per cent Class IV students in government schools across the state are unable to correctly count or write even two digit numbers.

More than 40 per cent students are unable to do simple divisions of two digit numbers and 25 per cent cannot even identify geometrical shapes.

Similarly, 32 per cent students of Class IV are unable to read sentences and 60 per cent students cannot write sentences.

The Learning Assessment Study undertaken by the school and mass education department to ascertain basic competence of students of Class IV in language and mathematics in March 2013 indicated that students scored poorly in various tasks including reading, writing, listening and comprehension, number identification, understanding of numbers and their place value, simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Students of Class IV across 890 schools from all the 30 districts were evaluated for the study.

The overall state average learning index was found to be 0.492. Sixteen districts scored significantly above the state average. These included five high performing districts consisting Balasore, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Rayagada.

Similarly, 14 districts scored significantly below the state average of which the bottom five were Nabarangpur, Balangir, Nuapada, Baragarh and Mayurbhanj.

In mathematics, the overall state average learning achievement index was found out to be 0.623.

Students in Balasore were found to have the highest learning levels followed by those in Cuttack, Kendrapara, Puri and Rayagada, the study revealed.

Students of Nabarangpur, Sonepur, Balangir, Bargarh and Kalahadi were the worst performers in maths, the report said.

The study revealed that the students performed relatively better in reading, but are facing difficulty in writing. In mathematics, students have been lagging behind in topics such as place value, multiplication, division, monetary transaction and simple problems, said the study.

The findings assume importance, as the enrolment of children in government schools have gone up substantially under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and enactment of Right to Education Act.

The purpose of study was to obtain an overall picture of what students in specific classes know and can do. These findings were used to identify gaps and diagnose areas that need improvement. “This information will be used to impact policies and interventions for improving children learning under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan programme, said an official.