As part of its Chunauti 2018 programme, the Delhi government conducting a baseline assessment of all children enrolled in Classes VI-IX in its government schools to determine their current learning level and track their progress periodically.
The assessment, conducted by school teachers, found that of 2,01,997 Class VI students from 1,011 Delhi government schools, only 54 per cent were able to read something and just 26 per cent were able to read their own textbooks.
Subject-wise assessment
Subject-wise, 74 per cent could not read a paragraph from their Hindi textbook, 46 per cent could not read a simple story of Class II-level competency and eight per cent could not identify letters. In mathematics, 67 per cent children could not do simple three-digit by one digit division. Forty-four per cent could not do two-digit subtraction with borrowing and five per cent failed to recognise single digit numbers.
In the case of basic English, 75 per cent could not read a story of Class II-level competency and 13 per cent could not identify alphabet.
The assessment was conducted between July 14 and 16. In the first round, online data entry of Class VI students was done by the schools. Data entry of Classes VII to IX is likely to be completed by the end of this month.
“Nishtha” and “Pratibha”
To bridge the deficit between the students’ current learning levels and the level expected of them, the government has decided to reorganise the students in two groups — “Nishtha” and “Pratibha”.
While the focus in the “Nishtha” group will be to build basic reading, writing and numeracy skills over the next couple of months, the “Pratibha” group will proceed with grade-specified curriculum. As soon as students in the “Nishtha” group learn to read, they will be introduced to the grade-specific curriculum as well, so that they can participate in learning activities more confidently, informed the government.
