The youth in Haryana have poor reading skills, cannot do basic arithmetic and also, lack in general knowledge.
Contrary to the tall claims of Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana to have improved standards and quality of school education, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2017 titled ‘Beyond Basics’, which focused on 14 to 18 years old students, threw light on how the youth in the state cannot even do basic calculation and answer simple general knowledge queries.
In the national survey, each state was represented by a district and Sonipat district was chosen in Haryana.
The survey is seen as an indicative of the trend across Haryana as Sonipat has 79.1 percent literacy rate which is higher than the state’s average of 75.6 percent. In other indicators, while 65.1 percent rural population in Haryana is rural, 68.7 percent in Sonipat is rural population.
The ASER survey covered 1213 youth in 933 households in 60 villages of Sonipat.
The survey revealed that nearly 83 percent youth aged 14-18 years are enrolled in class XII or below while 7.5 percent are enrolled in under graduate courses in Sonipat. In the age group 17-18 years, 63 percent youth including 56 percent female and 69.7 percent male are enrolled in class XII or below while 18.9 percent are in colleges.
A high percentage of 51.7 youth aged 17-18 years are working for 15 days or more in a month while 9 percent in the same group in the district are taking vocational training courses.
POOR READING PROWESS
About 22 percent teens cannot read English sentences and 33.3 percent cannot read and understood even three out of four written instructions, as per the ASER report.
What’s worse, only 11.4 percent youth aged 14-18 could read English words and 10.6 percent can read small letter or below.
In reading level test up to standard II, over 12 percent could not read it.
The last year’s ASER 2016 report had also put forth poor reading skills of the students. It had revealed that only 25.1 percent students in class III in government schools could read class II level text while the percentage was much higher in private schools with 60.9 percent.
Similarly, 54.6 percent students enrolled in class V could read class II level text in government schools.
WEAK ARITHMETIC SKIllS
As far as arithmetic proficiency is concerned, only 17.6 percent youth aged 14-18 can do basic subtraction while only 19.8 percent can recognize the number 99 or below.
Out of total surveyed, more than 37 percent youth could not do basic division, the report stated.
In common calculation, while 91.6 percent could do simple measuring of length, only 39.8 percent youth could to do hard task of measuring length. Besides this, calculation of time was another hard task for youth with only 45.8 percent managing to do it while 56.3 percent could apply unitary method.
Interestingly, over 64 percent of youth can manage a budget while only 41.2 can apply a discount and a dismal 13.6 percent youth can calculate repayment.
The last ASER survey had also suggested weak arithmetic skills of students in Haryana. It had revealed that only 30.1 percent students could do basic division in class V in government schools while in class VIII, only 53.5 students could do division.
GENERAl KNOWlEDGE AND DAIlY TASKS
The youth in Haryana again flunked in terms of general knowledge. Nearly 49 percent of the youth in the age group of 14-18 years in the state cannot locate Haryana on India’s map. While more than 35 percent could not name country’s capital, around 15 percent also could not name their own state, the report revealed. The youth in Haryana, however, are proficient in doing ‘daily tasks’ of counting money, adding weights and telling time. As many as 77.9 percent youth can count money, 90.3 percent can tell the time (hour) and 64.7 percent are able to add weights (kilograms).