A recent study conducted by the National Council For Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has revealed that the students of Class 3 in Tamil Nadu schools are abysmally poor in numerical ability tests. The students fared poorly in the language proficiency tests as well, shockingly in the Tamil language also.

The Foundational learning study, 2022, was conducted by the NCERT for the Nipun Bharat scheme under the Union Ministry of Education.

The study found that 29% of Tamil Nadu's Class 3 students could not complete the basic numerical abilities including number identification, multiplication, division, identifying patterns comprising numbers and shapes and identifying dates and months in calendars. This makes the state the most backward as far as the numerical ability of the students of Class 3 is concerned.

Tamil Nadu is followed by Jammu and Kashmir (28%), Assam (18%), Gujarat (18%) and Chhattisgarh (18%). The national average of the number of students who could not comprehend numerically was only 11%.

Interestingly the Gross Enrolment Ratio at the national level is only 27.1 while that of Tamil Nadu is 51.4. This data clearly shows that Tamil Nadu is lagging behind other states in this.

The state fared poorly in the language category as well with 48 percent of students not knowing basic knowledge and skills in Tamil while 43% did not know the basics of English.

The test was conducted with the children being made to read out loud and asked questions from texts that were not in the school syllabus.

The study was conducted among 2937 class 3 students from 336 schools. The study was undertaken among government schools, private schools etc.

The NCERT in its report said that only 46% of the students were able to read 80-100 letters correctly and fluently in Tamil. Only 47% of the students could read 80% of the words in English fluently. (KB/IANS)