'No exams' leads to poor learning skills in rural kids: Survey

NEW DELHI: The replacement of the examination as a tool of evaluating the students' learning by the system of "continuous and comprehensive evaluation" in schools has resulted a decline in learning of basics reading and math skills among rural children in government primary schools, according to the Annual Survey of Education 2012 by Pratham, an NGO focused on primary education.

The survey reports that levels of reading and math in primary schools was not just poor but were declining in many states. This decline, first spotted in the 2011 survey, is being attributed to the "no examination" system that has been enshrined by the Right to Education.

"In 2008, the proportion of children in class III, who could read a class I text was under 50%, but now it has dipped about 16 percentage points to nearly 30%. A child in Class III has to learn a two-digit subtraction but the children, who can even recognize numbers up to 100, has dropped from 70% to 50% over the last four years, with the real downward turn distinctly coming after 2010, the year after the Right to Education came into force. No examination as mandated in the Right to Education, and moving to a system of continuous comprehensive evaluation, has led to relaxation resulting in neglect of students" Madhav Chavan, Pratham's CEO-President said.

However, the human resource development minister MM Pallam Raju, who released the annual survey, didn't agree with the view that the "no examination" system was responsible for the decline in the already poor learning outcomes. Raju said, "I will not say that the decline in learning is because of continuous and comprehensive evaluation but we will find out and focus on why it is happening, and address the cause of this decline".