Karnataka's Class X students perform better than national average: NCERT

The average performance of Class X students of Karnataka in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science is "significantly higher" than the national average, according to a comparative assessment by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

Though there is not much difference in the average performance of the students belonging to different social groups among themselves, it is "significantly lower" in Mathematics for the scheduled caste (SC) students than those belonging to other backward classes (OBCs) in the state.

Class X boys are far ahead of the girls in the state when it comes to their performance in English. The NCERT education achievement survey team has not observe "any significant" difference in the average performance of the girls and that of the boys in the other three subjects.

"Average performance of girls as well as boys in the state was significantly higher than their respective national averages in all four subjects," the Council's State Report Card for Karnataka observes.

The council has prepared a comparative secondary school report card for each of the States and Union Territories (UTs). It conducted a study of the class X students learning level at 358 sample schools in each of the States and UTs.

"In each of the four subjects subjects, three test booklets were used to assess the learning levels in depth. The survey team used the IRT (item response theory) method for the analysis of data collected from the sample schools," an NCERT official said.

Compared to the national average of 250 points in a scale of 175 to 325 points, the average performance of the Karnataka's Class X students' in English came at 259, mathematics 260, Science 266, Social Science 266.

The NCERT's education survey for Karnataka, however, does not indicate that the students have achieved the highest level of performance in the four subjects.

A comparative analysis of the performance of the state's Class X students from different social groups indicated that schools have to help a significant number of students improve their learning levels in all four subjects even though they together stand on the higher side when compared with the students of the other States and UTs at national level.

For English, the NCERT has marked 20% of the general category students as under-performing while the percentage of under-performers in the subject came at 30 for the SC students, 24 for the OBC students and 26 for the students belonging to scheduled tribes (ST).

Percentage of category-wise under-performers in Mathematics, Science and Social Science too remained in the range of 22 to 30.

"The SC and ST students contributed maximum in the under performance group. They constitute more than 50% of the students that need improvement," the State Report Card noted.