Gujarati is all Greek to pupils in rural Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: As the

state government

embarks on the seventh

`Gunotsav

' -a government drive to

improve the quality of teaching

in state-run schools -the 11th

Annual Status of Education Report

(ASER) 2016 released on Wednesday explains how

Gujarat's children

in rural schools have still a lot of catching up to do.

In case of basic mathematics, only 18% children in class 3 could do subtraction, while this number was an equally dismal 26% in class 5. When it comes to division, in class 5 only 16% children could correctly divide.In class 3, only 19% children and in class 8 only 35% could divide.

The ASER survey in Gujarat covered 12,923 students in the age group of 3-16 years in 779 villages. In all, a total of 644 government schools were covered. “Every year, ASER finds out whether children in rural India go to school, whether they can read simple text and whether they can do basic arithmetic,“ says spokesperson Chirag Vyas of Pratham education foundation.

In case of English comprehension, nearly 50% children in class 3 could not read English capital letters like A, J, Q, N, E, Y, R, O, while in class 1 there were 82% who could not read capital letters. Poor grasp of mother tongue Gujarati was also a serious concern. In class1, an alarming 46.3% could not recognize Gujarati letters, 22% could read letters but not words or small sentences.

The only silver lining is that Gujarat has shown marked improvement in school enrolment that has risen from 79.2% in 2014 to 86% in 2016 in students aged 11-14 years. Lack of infrastructure continues to be a crippler. A good 53% children in class 2 were seated with other classes for lack of classrooms. This number was 36% in 2010. However, 80% schools now have exclusive girls toilets and 85% schools have drinking water facilities.