The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 has revealed an alarming learning crisis among students in Tamil Nadu, raising serious concerns about foundational literacy and numeracy skills, and contradicting the tall claims by the promoters of the Dravidian Model of Education.
Tamil Nadu Students Can’t Even Read Basic Tamil
According to the report, a shocking 64.4% of Class 5 students in Tamil Nadu are unable to read a simple Class 2-level text in Tamil. The problem is even more severe at the lower levels
Among children in Class 3,
- 8.6% cannot even read letters
- 18.2% can read letters but not words or higher
- 36.3% can read words but not Class 1 level text or higher
- 24.8% can read Class I level text but not Class 2 level text
- 88% can’t read Class 2 level text
The issue persists across both government and private schools. 86.8% of government school Class 3 students can’t read a Class 2 text.
Surprisingly, private school students perform even worse, with 90% of Class 3 students unable to read at a Class 2 level.
63% of government school students in Class 5 can’t read a simple Class 2 text while the number is 32.3% for private school students.
By Class 8, only 62.2% of government school students and 70.8% of private school students can read at a Class 2 level, showing that the crisis extends into middle school.
Math Skills Declining
The situation is equally grim in mathematics:
- 60% of Class 8 students cannot solve a basic division problem.
- 80% of Class 3 students struggle with simple subtraction.
- 67.3% of Class 8 students cannot even perform subtraction.
The gap between government and private school students in numeracy is significant:
- Only 27.6% of government and 28.2% of private school Class 3 students can successfully subtract.
- However, in Class 8, only 37.8% of government and 46.8% of private school students can solve a basic division problem.
Worryingly, the percentage of Class 8 students capable of doing division has been steadily declining since 2014, highlighting a decade-long educational downturn.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a large-scale nationwide survey conducted by the NGO Pratham. Since 2005, ASER has been the world’s largest citizen-led education survey, assessing learning outcomes among children aged 5 to 16 years in rural India. It provides critical insights into foundational learning levels in reading, arithmetic, and basic English skills.
The 2024 findings serve as a wake-up call for Tamil Nadu’s education system which makes tall claims about being a Dravidian Model state. For all the linguistic chauvinism and political posturing by Dravidian parties about two-language policy, it is deeply worrying that Tamil Nadu children are not even able to read a simple text in Tamil.
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