The Education Department has rolled out a special programme to develop the skills of reading and comprehension at the primary school level. The programme was drawn up following the poor performance of students in learning outcomes as per the National Achievement Survey 2017.
The programme — Developing Early Academic Literacy — developed by Samagra Shiksha, Directorate of School Education, aimed to make children read with comprehension in their mother tongue and in English. The programme would be implemented in Class 1 to 5.
According to a senior official, the aim was to improve learning outcomes of students in all subjects. As per the National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted for Class 3 and 5 during 2017, the performance in learning outcome of students in the Union Territory was below national average.
The post-NAS intervention programmes had identified lack of comprehension skills as the main problem among students which led to poor performance.
A circular issued by the Director of School Education P.T. Rudra Goud on June 21 said the first three months of the academic year would be focussed on improving language literacy among students. A pre-test would be conducted on July 4 to arrive at the baseline for intervention to improve the students learning skills.
Another test
After the intervention programmes, the heads of institutions were asked to conduct another test to assess the progress of students in improving comprehension skills, the circular to the heads of institutions said.
The institutions had been asked to begin language classes with loud reading of a subject by the teacher followed by a student on rotation basis.
The students should be encouraged to ask questions about the topic and the queries should be properly addressed by the teacher.
Teachers had been asked to encourage peer reading and collaborative reading.
The schools had been asked to conduct reading festivals in September and October.
A committee under the Chairmanship of the Director of School Education and sub committees under the Chairmanship of inspecting officers had been constituted to monitor the impact of the programme.
