3Rs: State kids fare poorly, says report

Bengaluru: The reading and comprehending abilities of children in Karnataka is  so alarmingly poor that students of the higher classes are not able to read and comprehend texts of their sub-juniors,  reveals the Annual Status of Education Report, 2018 for the state.

While the sampling is predominantly from the rural parts of the state, the trend is similar among urban children covered too. The study in rural areas was done in both  government and private schools.

Worryingly, the report says that  80.8 per cent of children in the third standard cannot read or comprehend texts belonging to the class 2 children.  “As many as 54.0 per cent children in the fifth grade cannot read the  texts of the second grade and  29.7 per cent of  children in the eighth grade cannot read texts of the second grade,” it reveals.

While this data highlights the poor reading abilities of children in the rural parts of Karnataka, the picture is almost identical in the urban parts as well. The study is clearly a wake-up call to the education sector to address the issue of reading disabilities among children.

One of the problems appears to be that while  schools that cater to the privileged sections of society have libraries, those that cater to the underprivileged either don’t have one or don’t have ones that are functional.

And although the  government has established the Indira Priyadarshini Childrens’ Library, few children visit it. The issue is complex as  reading is seen as a luxury among parents from a poor economic background, who don’t find buying a storybook for their children a neccessity.

Ms Shahnaz Sultana, adjunct faculty, mechanical department, PES University and co-founder of ‘Reading Stars India’says she was shocked to find during her sessions on personality development for high school children that they found it very difficult to read and understand the written word.

On inquiring, she learnt that the children were used to rote learning and didn’t even read their textbooks. “I was disturbed as they scored good marks with rote learning while they couldn’t actually read properly. We then approached schools and community centres to encourage reading among children,” she explains.   The initial problem that she  encountered was  the drastic reading disability among children as against their grades. To address this, the children were introduced to a Library Readiness Programme, which  was adopted from a system followed in the USA.

“Based on research, ‘Dolch Words’ were constructed  where over 300 words which covers 50 per cent of words used upto class 5, were identified and taught using creative means to children.