Standards in Government schools a cause of concern: DEO

Adilabad: The educational standards in government schools are now a cause of concern. The survey by the officials revealed startling facts about the fallen standards, especially at the primary level. Speaking to The Hans India here on Friday, Adilabad District Educational Officer (DEO) Lingaiah said students of government schools in the districts of Adilabad, Mancheryal, Nirmal and Asifabad showed poor performance in the skill assessment tests conducted by educational department. As many as three lakh students are studying at 4,300 government schools in all these four districts. Educational department conducted skill assessment tests in these schools.

The DEO said that The results revealed that there was a deterioration of educational standards in the government schools and this isa great cause for worry. The results indicated only 18 per cent students studying in primary schools could read Telugu. Remaining 82 per cent students don’t have minimum knowledge in Telugu alphabets. Only nine per cent students are able to reproduce what they have read. Students showed poor performance in English. Only four per cent of them could write what they have read. Mathematics is no exception. Forget about problem solving, the students aren’t in a position to memorise numbers.

Lingaiah said that only 31 per cent high school students are able read Telugu and only 16 per cent could write words and poems of the language. In English too, only eight percent students are able to reproduce out of the 18 percent that could read. The students aren’t able to solve additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions which should have been learnt in primary school itself.

Model schools with English as a medium of instruction showed only 41 per cent students are able to write out of the 29 per cent who could read. 58 per cent could read Telugu and 43 per cent of 53 per cent could only reproduce what they have read. Kasturabha Gandhi school students who could read Telugu are 41 per cent, and who could write Telugu are 32 per cent. 20 per cent could read and only 11 per cent could write English.

Parents of the students studying in these schools are extremely angry over the degradation of the educational standards. They said the teachers here were only concerned about their salaries. The inspections of DEO revealed teachers irresponsibility. The teachers here are employing volunteers to teach and are not seen in the schools for months at a stretch.The DEO said measures would be taken to raise the educational standards. He said AEOs will raid schools in a regular basis. Biometric system would be introduced for teachers attendance ,he added.