The test was conducted under ‘Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab’ project. (Express Archive) The test was conducted under ‘Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab’ project. (Express Archive)

A state education department report on the ‘baseline test’ conducted to judge the actual learning level of Class 1 to 5 students from government primary schools has revealed that a staggering 70.15 per cent failed the basic test in English, mathematics and Punjabi. This internal report for the state was compiled based on the ‘baseline test’ conducted in 12,977 government primary schools in phases between August and September last year.

According to the report, 85 per cent Class 1 students failed to successfully write the entire English alphabet, and 80 per cent among them failed to recognise numbers 1 to 20, while 82 per cent failed to write the Punjabi alphabet.

The ‘baseline test’ was designed to test students in ‘minimum and basic’ syllabus in three subjects — English, Punjabi and maths. The questions were formulated using syllabus for lower classes. While Class I students were tested for basic alphabet recall, number recognition meant for pre-primary students, Class 5 students were tested for Class 3 and 4 syllabus.

The basic test report will be followed by an ‘endline’ report — based on result of final examinations in March — to see if there has been any improvement after ‘corrective measures’ being initiated. The test was conducted under ‘Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab’ project, and it tested 8,97,433 students, including 1.62 lakh from Class 1, 1.75 lakh from Class 2, 1.83 lakh from Class 3, 1.88 lakh from Class 4 and 1.87 lakh from Class 5.

According to the report, only 29.85 per cent students cleared the overall test in three subjects. Class 1 has shown the poorest results with just 18.08 per cent passing it, followed by 27.18 per cent from Class 2, 31.37 per cent from Class 3, 31.81 per cent from Class 4 and 29.85 per cent from Class 5.

In the subject-wise result, English again has the poorest result with 78.43 per cent students failing. In maths and Punjabi, more than 65 per cent children failed. Only 32.40 per cent cleared the maths test and 35.58 per cent cleared the Punjabi test. Education department officials said corrective measures were being planned. “The endline results will be compiled after final exams in March. We have appointed district-level mentors in each subject. Also, English medium is being introduced in selected schools,” said an official.

Subject-wise data

English:

— 81.2 per cent cannot read and 85.7 per cent cannot write English alphabets of 1.62 lakh class 1 kids

— 80 per cent cannot write three letter words of 1.75 lakh class 2 kids

— 75.5 per cent cannot write three letter words with vowel sounds of 1.83 lakh class 3 kids

— 71 per cent cannot write simple sentence in English out of 1.88 lakh class 4 kids

— 78.8 per cent cannot write simple sentence in English of 1.87 lakh class 5 kids

Punjabi

— 82.6 per cent from class 1 cannot write Punjabi alphabets

— 75.5 per cent from class 2 cannot read simple words

— 63 per cent from class 3 cannot read a paragraph

— 65 per cent from class 4 cannot read a story

— 48.5 per cent from class V cannot write a sentence

Maths

— 85 per cent from class 1 cannot write a ‘table of 2’ and 80.3 per cent cannot recognise numbers from 1 to 20

— 74.5 per cent from class 2 cannot do single digit subtraction

— 81.5 per cent from class 3 cannot do simple multiplication

— 67 per cent cannot from class 4 do simple divide sums

— 60.6 per cent from Class 5 cannot divide three digit number by one digit number

District wise result

— Worst performance has been shown by Gurdaspur, Punjab, with only 24.65 per cent students passing the test

— No single district has touched even 50 per cent with the highest being 39.76 per cent of Fazilka

— Other worst performers include Moga (26.6 per cent), Bathinda (27.87 per cent), Patiala (27.6 per cent), Tarn Taran (26.95 per cent), Pathankot (27.49 per cent) and Muktsar (28.69 per cent).

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