K'taka students fare poorly in NCERT's competency test

Class X students in Karnataka put up a poor show in the first-ever competency test conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in February across 610 districts in 34 states and union territories.

In the test, 62% Class X students in the state failed to show the desired level of learning achievement in mathematics and science. The performance remained poor in tests held for social science, English and Modern Indian Language too, according to results compiled by the NCERT.

Around 55% of students could not give correct answers to most of the questions asked from social science, 58% in English and 45% in the Modern Indian Language (MIL).

While a total of 60 questions were asked in each of the five subjects, 1,02,157 students of 2,715 government, government-aided and private schools appeared for the test in the state. Just 2% could secure 76-100% score in mathematics, 1% secured 70-100% in science, 3% in English and 8% in MIL. Karnataka students, however, fared better than those in many other states.

The NCERT assessed a total of 15 lakh students of Class X in the five subjects, holding a competency test across 34 states and union territories, including Karnataka, on February 5.

At the national level, the overall percentage of students who failed to give correct answers to all the questions in mathematics and science each remained 66.

Girls in Karnataka performed better than boys in social science, science, English and MIL. Forty-five per cent of girls gave correct answers in social science, 43% in English and 57% in MIL. The corresponding figures for boys were 34%, 42% and 54%. Boys and girls, however, had a tie in mathematics and science, with 38%.