34 percent students of class 8 cannot read class II books, extreme deterioration of Tripura's education system

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, July 30, 2024

34 percent students of class VIII are not able to read class II books in various schools of Tripura government. This information has emerged in a recent survey.

Allegations have been made that the education system in rural Tripura is in a bad state under the BJP coalition rule.

In a tone of sarcasm, teacher's who are fond of learning say that a class of NGOs outside the state are being provided the task to improve the education system in Tripura with huge monitorial benifits and as a result, Tripura's education system has deteriorated. In the last 6 and a half years, the Tripura Education Department has implemented one after another new projects. But in reality there was no benefit in implementing these new projects.

It is known, a research organization outside the state, recently conducted a study on the education of rural Tripura. In this, the information of the extreme deterioration of the education system of Tripura has come up.

The survey showed that only 80 percent of the students studying in the third grade could not read the second grade text book. And 12.4 percent of the students in the class-1 do not know the letters. In case of class-2, this rate is 5.6 percent. Third grade 3.6 percent, fourth grade 3.5 percent, fifth grade 1.9 percent, sixth grade 1.2 percent, seventh grade 1.3 percent students are unable to recognize letters correctly.

On the other hand, only 16.4 percent of third-grade students and 23.9 percent of female students can read second-grade text books. Its rate is 38.1 percent among students studying in class V and 54.9 percent among female students. This rate is 61.7 percent among male students studying in class VIII and 70.5 percent among female students.

The situation is more worrying when it comes to mathamatics and numbers. ASER's survey shows that 2.7 percent of third-graders are unable to correctly recognize the numbers 1 to 9. 17.7 percent students are unable to recognize numbers up to 99. 48 percent of students do not know marks above 19. In terms of English language, 12.6 percent of the class-1 students in rural Tripura have no knowledge of 'capital letters'. Only 21.4 percent students are able to read small words. And 3.8 percent students are able to read simple English sentences. 7.7 percent of second class students are able to read simple sentences. In the class-3, that rate is 15.8 percent. 22.2 percent in class IV. 29.5 percent in class V. 35.2 percent in sixth grade, 42.8 percent in seventh grade. And in the eighth grade, that rate is 49.5 percent.

Naturally, the question arises in the public mind in the last 6 and a half years in the name of introducing world-class education, what has been the benefit of spending hundreds of crores of rupees on various projects? Who benefited from these projects?