Learning levels in rural areas tumbling

Learning levels of students across rural Pakistan are tumbling despite rhetoric and massive investment and interventions in school education system by respective provincial governments as almost 57 per cent Grade 5 students cannot read Grade 2 English sentences and cannot do two-digit division. More alarmingly almost half of such students have been found unable to read simple Class-II level story text in Urdu/Sindhi/Pashto.

Since last year, the competency of reading English sentences by Class-V students has gone down by 5 per cent and in arithmetic skills have fallen by 1 per cent. The students’ ability to read Urdu/Sindhi/Pashto story text remained static at around 50 per cent.

The educationists say students’ low learning levels bring into question the competence of teachers as well as the examination systems that are promoting incompetent students to next grades.

- DAWN.com