PMC to check if 87,000 students can read

If you have faith in the findings of NGO Prathamrsquos Annual Status of Education Report ASER you donrsquot have to read between the lines to gauge that the state of the cityrsquos civic schools and their students is rather depressing The report had stated that 70 per cent of class III students here arenrsquot proficient enough to even read class I textbooks A new chapter Asking students to recite maths tables checking basic skills like addition subtraction etc will also be a part of PMCrsquos upcoming campaignu00a0 Now PMCrsquos education board has pulled up its socks and is about to initiate a drive to check the veracity of these claims and establish the reading skills of 86872 registered students in classes I to VII of 310 civic schools Asking students to recite mathematical tables checking basic primary level skills like addition subtraction etc will also be a part of this upcoming campaign scheduled to be held between February 22 and 28 Winds of change Pune Municipal Corporationrsquos education board has pulled up its socks and is about to initiate a drive to check the veracity of these claims and establish the reading skills of 86872 registered students in classes I to VII across its 310 civic schools in the city File Pic ldquoTill last year in routine inspections only a few students in each class were asked to perform some exercises But this year we are planning to connect with each and every student through this driverdquo said Pradeep Dhumal chairperson of PMCrsquos education board ldquoPlans to conduct this weeklong drive are ready We are fashioning supervisorteacher groups that will visit schools randomly and cover all 310 of them We are taking precautions to ensure that teachers donrsquot end up at schools where they are employedrdquo he said ldquoThe forte of this drive is participation of parents We have already informed them through students about the proposed campaign and they are supposed to come in to the schools to witness academic progress of their childrenrdquo said Bhivaji Dhumal principal Vidyaniketan School number 8 in Kothrud ldquoThis exercise is a genuine effort to bear out the calibre of students and quality of our schoolsrdquo explained Shirish Phadtare member of the education board When we quoted some of the findings from ASER about decreasing quality of primary education Phadtare replied ldquoLast year 34 of our class IV and class VII students appeared in the merit list of the state scholarship exams This itself proves the competence of our students The quality of our teachers and the facilities we provide in our school are among the bestrdquo ldquoIt is truly a welcome step Though ASER findings are based on observations from rural parts of the country the situation in civic schools in the cities are not much different Thatrsquos why it is really laudable that the PMC education board is taking an initiative to check if its students are equipped with basic learning skills or notrdquo said Usha Rane director Pratham Rane who oversees six states including Maharashtra added ldquoEven Right To Education RTE Actrsquos provision of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation CCE expects that schools intimate parents about the progress of their children So conducting the exercise in the presence of parents is another positive step As I am in Mumbai I am not aware about the details of PMCrsquos campaign But I will definitely ask my colleagues in Pune to attend and examine the exerciserdquo Vital stats Number of students from various schools to be covered in the drive gtgt Vidya Niketan schools 4472 gtgtu00a0English medium schools 10972 gtgtu00a0Marathi and Urdu medium schools 71428 gtgtu00a0Total no of students 86872u00a0