State-run, aided schools in Karnataka best for elementary education

Elementary education in Karnataka's government-run and aided schools is the best in India, an NCERT test result has revealed.

The provisional results of the first-ever nationwide competency test, conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) over a couple of months ago, indicate that class III students of the sample schools in Karnataka outperformed pupils of the same class in other states.

A total of 75.6% of class III students from Karnataka fared well in the test.

Class V students, too, beat their counterparts from across the country. As many as 69% of the class V students from Karnataka showed a satisfactory level of performance in the test.

The results, however, placed Class VIII students from schools in Karnataka at the second position with 54.8% students showing a satisfactory level of learning achievements.

The Class VIII students from Rajasthan topped the test. A total of 62% students from Rajasthan performed well.

At the national level, the percentage of students who performed well came at 65.7%, 56.5% and 46.8% for classes III, V and VIII, respectively.

The NCERT conducted the test on November 13 to assess the learning outcome of the students in four subjects - Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Science.

About 25 lakh students from 1.10 lakh schools across 700 districts in all 29 states and 7 Union Territories took the 120-minute examination.

Students were asked to answer 15 questions in each of the subjects, based on the parameters fixed for assessment of the minimum learning outcome of the pupils under the Right to Education Rules, notified by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD).

The NCERT had initially targeted to cover about 36 lakh students of 1.20 lakh government-run and aided schools in the test to assess the class-wise and subject-wise learning achievement.

"Provisional results indicate that the girls of classes III and V performed better than the boys of same classes in all categories. Class VIII girls performance in the test remained marginal," an official said.

By and large, the performance of students from rural areas remained well, the official added.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar released the district-wise provisional results. The NCERT is racing against time to come up with a report by March.