The recently released findings of the national achievement survey by NCERT rated performance of students from Goa in language at 71 percent – significantly higher than the national average of 64 percent, but they disappoint in mathematics with 66% performance.
The Goa survey with sample size of 2,472 students across 179 schools attempts to gauge the way students will progress in their studies by assessing students’ abilities in language and maths. Three skills such as listening, word recognition and reading comprehension were mapped to calculate the language results while in mathematics students were required to perform basic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.
According to the findings of the survey, while the State average for languages and math stood at 274 and 248, the national averages were 257 and 252 respectively.
“The ability to understand a simple text is a skill that is fundamental to learning. Without acquiring basic language skills in the primary classes, children have difficulty succeeding in school as they move on to higher grades, as well as in coping with other subjects,” an NCERT official told Herald adding that in maths key skills in early primary grades include knowing various skills that the foundation for a large set of mathematical operations which students will use in later stages of schooling as well as in real life, were tested.
In gender wise performance of students, girls outperformed boys in both language and maths. Results revealed that boys scored 272 in language and 247 in maths than the national average of 256 and 253 respectively. Girls in Goa also performed better
in languages.
