Pune
Edition, 22nd July 2008
Our high school students have
low levels of learning
In
the recent past, there has been a dramatic nationwide increase
in the marks obtained by students in the secondary board
examinations. In Maharashtra, during the last decade, the
proportion of candidates passing the Class 10 examinations
has jumped from around 50 per cent to about 80 per cent.
Whether it is the state board examinations, or those conducted
by the CBSE and ICSE authorities, more students are scoring
above 90 per cent than ever before, though not always getting
into the college of their choice.
This inflation in marks is due to a variety of reasons.
High schools and the coaching class industry are doing a
better job of preparing students to crack the examinations.
Competition between the state boards, CBSE and the ICSE
authorities in terms of ensuring their students’ entry
into college, especially prestigious courses and institutions,
has also fuelled this quantum jump in marks. In this insanely
competitive environment where every single mark counts,
most schools have deliberately inflated the internal assessment
marks of their own students.
In many urban schools, an overwhelming majority of candidates
are now getting distinctions and first classes in the board
examinations. This inflation of marks does not tell us,
as many believe, that these students are better in mathematics
or science than those students who passed out of school
a decade ago. Qualitative judgments of this kind require
a different type of periodic testing than those conducted
by our current board examinations. However, it is possible
to assess whether current levels of learning are adequate,
or not.
The recent large-scale World Bank study of mathematics achievement
of 6,000 Class 9 students studying in government and private
schools in Rajasthan and Orissa highlights serious deficiencies
in what many students are learning. Between 30 per cent
and 40 per cent of these students could not pass a low international
benchmark described as “some basic mathematical knowledge”.
More than 80 per cent of them could not choose correctly,
for example, the smallest number from the following set:
0.625, 0.25, 0.375, 0.5 and 0.125. The two states fell below
43 of the 51 countries for which comparable data exists.
According to the authors, Jishnu Das and Tristan Zajonc,
“The average child falls far below any reasonable
standard and a large minority fails completely.”
We do not have similar large-scale studies of actual achievement
in other areas of the secondary curriculum. The following
results of a study of the English skills of 100 students
in eight rural and two urban government regional medium
schools should, therefore, be treated as indicative. These
Class 10 students — most of them selected by their
teachers as among the best in English — were asked
to write as much as possible about their favourite film
star. About half of these “best” students were
unable to write a single correct sentence, or at best could
manage only one correct sentence. While less than 10 per
cent were able to write more than five correct sentences,
the subsequent board examination results declared a few
months later indicated that more than 80 per cent of all
candidates passed in English in the state.
The limited evidence that has been presented indicates that
inflated examination marks are not an indicator of the health
of our secondary school system. The authors of the mathematics
study estimate that about 18 million — or 70 per cent
of all 14-year-olds — are either not enrolled or have
not acquired some basic mathematical knowledge. There is
extensive research indicating that many students are completing
elementary education acquiring very limited foundational
skills. For those who continue to the high school stage,
the evidence suggests that the additional years of schooling
do not significantly improve their learning.
Only a very small percentage of the Class 9 students in
Orissa (9 per cent and 1 per cent), and in Rajasthan (4
per cent and 1 per cent), were able to pass the ‘high’
and advanced’ international benchmarks in mathematics
respectively. These figures were better than countries like
Chile, Iran, Philippines, South Africa and Ghana. However,
the Indian results were less than the corresponding figures
for the Netherlands (44 per cent and 10 per cent) and the
USA (29 per cent and 7 per cent), and far less than the
comparable figures for South East Asian mathematics powerhouses
like South Korea 70 per cent and 35 per cent), Taiwan 66
per cent and 38 per cent) and Japan (62 per cent and 38
per cent).
While less than 5 per cent of the 14-year-olds in India
could be counted as top mathematics achievers, the sheer
size of the youth population in India makes a big numerical
difference. India does not have employable young people
in the large numbers that our country requires. Manpower
studies, and spokesmen of various industries, indicate that
a large proportion of our engineering and business management
graduates, and a far greater percentage of general graduates,
are unemployable. And this huge quality gap will only begin
to be substantially addressed if our authorities are aware
of the abysmally low levels of learning of high school leavers.
Being clueless about this, they are unaware of the nature
and magnitude of the task that needs to be undertaken.
