Dear Editor,
The recent national achievement survey (NAS) by NCERT covering 22 lakhs students across 700 districts to understand the learning outcomes for class 4,5, and 8 has painted a sorry state for Arunachal. We have been placed in the bottom group among all the states and union territories across all 3 discipline surveyed (mathematics, language and science), scoring less than the national average. The state has topped from bottom particularly in subjects like mathematics (class v) and language scoring a lowly 39 and 43 percent respectively in face of the national average of 53 and 58 percent at the same, the survey is most alarming also for the fact that the learning outcomes were based on testing a student’s understanding of a subject, concept and their application rather than testing their memory.
The poor condition of the government schools and the skill set of teachers in Arunachal Pradesh is no surprise for any native Arunachali but the level of deterioration is just too dangerous, the decadent school system in the state is mired in practices far from what a school ought to, the lack of the responsibility and the lack of zeal among the teaching cadre is a sad fact of life in the state.
A new initiative involving community leader and parents to be part and parcel of everyday working of the chocolate needs to be introduced, for long have been teachers in many school drawing onto the public money without any accountabilities, senior bureaucrats need to wake and look beyond their own immediate welfare and fix loopholes in their administration, the result of the survey should be pinned on them.
Yours,
A concerned citizen