Only 8% Vth Grade Students in Gujarat
Can Read Sentences
In a state where people
can’t read and write sentences politicians like Narindra Modi can fool its
people and politically thrive.
Ravinder Singh
Jan16, 2010
Just 25% class I kids know Eng letters in Guj
Pvt Edu Audit Shows Growing
Crisis
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New
Delhi: The scare raised by
Supreme Court on Thursday about China
being poised to overtake India
in English proficiency is about to come true. The annual audit by Pratham, a
well-known education NGO, reported on Friday that ability to read and
comprehend English varied wildly across India and only 43.8% of class I kids
could read the alphabets, even in big capital letters.
It’s worse than the average in many states. Gujarat
is worst with barely 25.3% class I kids able to read capital letters. Bihar,
Orissa, Assam
and Jharkhand are only marginally better at 33.4%, 34.5%, 36% and 41.8%,
respectively. In south, Karnataka, despite its hi-tech glitter, scores just as
bad — only 37% of class I kids could pass the simple English test.
The performance improves after class V. Till class V many
states show the falling trend of students either able to read words or
sentences. It can be gauged from the fact that while in class V the all-India
average of students who can read sentences is 25.7%, by class VIII it goes up
to 60.2%. But the decline till class V is noticeable. Many states like Gujarat,
Jharkhand, Assam,
Orissa, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, English
language skills fall dramatically in class V. Even southern states follow the
same trend. In Gujarat it is abysmally low at
8%. The advantage that India
enjoys over China
because of English, could vanish soon unless there is all round recognition of
the looming crisis. Education experts say that unless English is made
compulsory in school, India
might be in an irreversible slide.
In Kerala, the knowledge of English appeared the best with
85% of kids reading capital letters. Pratham’s Annual Statistics of Education
Report, the only private audit of elementary education in the country, was
written after a survey of 575 out of 583 rural districts and 3.38 lakh
households involving nearly 7 lakh kids.
