Page 18 - EW February 2023

Education News

had learnt. This is why learning defi- of 84,000 primary teachers urgently textbooks in government and private
cit is more acute in relatively younger required by government schools. schools in Karnataka has dropped to
children who have not had the chance Following 34 years of uninterrupt- a rock-bottom 30.2 percent from 46
to strengthen the foundations of their ed Marxist rule and another 12 years percent in 2018, against the national
learning. Children enrolled in class of quasi-Marxist misgovernance, the average of 42.8 percent. Likewise in
I in 2020 have learnt nothing dur- light of the Bengal cultural and edu- numeracy skills, Karnataka children
ing the past two years. In effect, they cation renaissance of the 19th century are way behind the national average.
started school in 2022 but have been has been almost extinguished. Only 13.3 percent of class V children
promoted to class III while still illit- Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) can do simple division sums against
erate. This will trouble them through- the national average of 25.6 percent.
out their lives,” warned Dr. Sukanta KARNATAKA Shockingly, only 16.8 percent of class
Jadavpur University, at a January 19 Heavy pandemic cost III children statewide can recognise
Chaudhuri, emeritus professor at
numbers up to 99. “Clearly, the
panel discussion on ASER 2022 con- pandemic has resulted in learning
vened by the West Bengal Liver Foun- or karnataka’s beleaguered rul- loss. However, what the ASER 2022
dation and Pratham Foundation. ing BJP government fighting figures seem to suggest is that the
Abhijit Chowdhury, a medical Fa spate of corruption scandals loss is much greater in some states,”
practitioner and secretary of the West ahead of looming legislative as- says Dr. Wilima Wadhwa, direc-
Bengal Liver Foundation, warned sembly elections to be held in May, tor of ASER Centre.
that the education system is “sink- the Annual Status of Education Karnataka is one of five states
ing gradually, like Joshimath”, and Report (ASER) 2022, released in the nationwide where children have suf-
that “educational goals should not be national capital on January 18 and fered over 10 percentage drop in the
seen through the prism of political authored by the highly-respected reading capability of class V children.
colours”. Pratham Education Foundation, con- “Drops of more than 10 percent-
Against this dismal backdrop, a age points are visible in
growing number of academics and Uttarakhand, Rajasthan,
public intellectuals are calling for a Haryana, Karnataka, and
massive, concerted remedial educa- Maharashtra,” says the re-
tion drive statewide, especially for port which attributes the
children in early childhood and pri- decline in learning levels
mary education. For this, they have of children to the 82-
called for special dedicated provision week lockdown of schools
in the state’s annual budget scheduled during the pandemic, and
to be tabled in the legislative assembly unavailability of digital
on February 15. devices and internet
During 34 years of uninterrupted connectivity for online
rule of the CPM (Communist Party of learning.
India-Marxist)-led Left Front govern- ASER 2022, which
ment (1977-2011), barely literate party Village primary children: disturbing revelations surveyed 19,060 villages
apparatchiks captured teachers’ posts in 616 districts of rural In-
in K-12 education and massively in- tains bad news. The first household dia, tested the reading and arithme-
filtrated the academy, ruining West child-testing report since the Co- tic capabilities of 7 lakh children of
Bengal’s nationally admired educa- vid-19 pandemic shut down schools 374,544 households nationwide. In
tion system. Since then despite being countrywide for 82 weeks in 2020- Karnataka, 31,854 children in the age
in power for 12 years, the Mamata 21, ASER 2022 confirms that the group three to 16 years were tested.
Banerjee-led TMC government hasn’t ill-advised prolonged lockdown of The survey makes other disturb-
been successful in breaking the hold of schools has inflicted massive learn- ing revelations about the condition
powerful communist teachers associa- ing loss among children statewide. of rural schools in Karnataka. It says
tions/unions in schools and colleges. Worse, the learning loss of Karna- that 14.1 percent of them don’t have
Instead, the TMC government has car- taka’s 10.8 million children is greater useable girls’ toilets and 22.9 percent
ried on from where the previous CPM than the national average. don’t provide drinking water facility.
government left off, and is embroiled According to ASER 2022 (which Shocking data for a state which is a
neck-deep in teacher recruitment assesses elementary reading and hub of the 21st century ICT (infor-
scandals with Calcutta high court or- numeracy skills of rural children), mation communication technolo-
ders having stymied the recruitment class V children who can read class II gies) industry and enjoys a per capita

18 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2023