67% of Class VIII, 99% of Class I students can’t do basic math in JK

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Department of Education – of big boast and small roasts!

Srinagar, Jan 23: Notwithstanding boastful claims of the government and its Education department bosses about bringing a turnaround in the education sector in the state, a huge majority of students in J&K are not able to do basic arithmetic, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 has revealed.

For example, in the survey, students between Classes I-VIII were asked to divide three-digit by one-digit and solve two-digit subtraction with borrowing, which most among them failed to do.

The ASER, released last week by non-governmental organisation Pratham, has found that 67.1 percent students from Class VIII and 98.9 from Class I could not do simple maths.

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Nearly 72 percent children of Class VII, 73.6 percent of Class VI, 74.9 percent of Class V, 85.9 percent of Class IV, 94 percent of Class III and 97.7 from Class II struggled to perform division, mentioned the ASER, adding that only 33.1 percent students of Class VIII, 33.8 percent from Class VII, 32.4 from Class VI and 30.7 from Class V were able to complete the task in subtraction.

About the reading ability of students, the rural household-based national survey also revealed startling findings.

In the survey, the respondents were asked to read the texts, words and letters which they failed to do.

For instance, a large number of students from upper primary were not up to the mark in reading.

It came to fore that 35.2 percent children from Class VIII, 47.1 percent from Class VII and 49.4 percent from Class VI failed to read even the basic primary-level text.

Interestingly, 17.8 percent of those surveyed from Class I were not able to even identity alphabets like a, k, t, m, z, etc, while 38.1 percent failed to read simple words like cup, out, key, doll, etc.

The survey was conducted with 546,527 children from 596 districts of rural India.

Last year also, the ASER (2017) had found that 56 percent of Jammu and Kashmir students aged 14-18 were not able to divide a three-digit by one-digit, whereas 30 percent adolescents could not read basic II level text.