A state-wide survey on the quality of education being imparted in government and aided schools has revealed a 14 percent progress in the levels of learning among students during the past one year.
Interestingly, the learning achievement in Marathi and Urdu schools is better than Kannada medium schools.
The second phase of assessment by Karnataka School Quality Assessment Organisation (KSQAO) was held between January 8 and 10 this year  and included students from classes three, five and seven.
Schools which had secured 40 per cent or less ‘marks’ in the first phase of the assessment programme (held last year) were included in the second phase. All Urdu and Marathi medium schools were included in the survey.
In all 20,671 schools and 10.35 lakh children were assessed.
Releasing the study report in Bangalore on Tuesday, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti and Public Instruction Commissioner G Kumar Naik said the survey has revealed that the overall State achievement in Kannada medium was 63.8, while in Urdu medium it is 66.9 and Marathi medium - 69.7
It was seen that standard III students performed the best with 73.6 percent followed by standard VII- 62.7 and standard V- 59.6. Mr Horatti attributed the improvement in performance levels of schools to the introduction of mid-day meal scheme and training programme for schools.
Mastery level
However, very few students have achieved mastery level (above 80 pc learning level). Those numbers are about 2 per cent in Kannada medium, 0.6 per cent in Urdu and one per cent in Marathi medium.
District-wisae Uttara Kannada tops the list with 77.8 pc learning achievement level and Bangalore South is at the bottom with 52.1 pc.
The following is list of educational districts having achievements level above state average (above 63.8 pc) -  Bagalkote, Bangalore Rural, Belgaum, Chikodi, Davangere, Dharwad, Hassan, Haveri, Madhugiri, Raichur, Shimoga, Tumkur, Udupi and Uttara Kannada.
The following educational districts have achievements level below state average (below 63.8 pc) - Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Bellary, Bidar, Bijapur, Chamarajnagar, Chickballapur, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Gadag, Gulbarga, Kodagu, Kolar, Koppal, Mandya, Mysore and Yadgir.
The entire report is available on the website www.kseeb.org. Mr Horatti has said that the survey will cover all the 45,000 government and aided schools in the state next year.

METHODOLOGY

The assessment was done through a written test for students in standards three, five and seven. Evaluators, drawn from a select pool of DEd teachers, were specifically trained for the purpose. The students of standards V and VII  were assess in language (Kannada, Marathi or Urdu), Mathematics, Science and Social Science subjects and for students of standard III it was restricted to language, Mathematics and Environment Studies.