Students of Odisha have outperformed their counterparts in other states in their competency in mathematics revealed National Achievement Survey (NAS). The class X students of Odisha scored significantly above the national average in mathematics in the NAS-2017, the first of its kind national survey conducted by National Council of Education Research and Teaching (NCERT) with an aim to assess the health of education in government and government-aided schools.
Odisha class X students have scored 265 in mathematics against the national average of 250 in the survey conducted by using three test booklets.
“The foundation of our students in mathematics is quite strong due to the Rural Mathematics Olympiad in which every year hundreds of students from elementary and secondary school appear. Besides, Odisha governments’ unique initiative of Pathani Samanta Mathematics Scholarship in which Rs 30 crore is given every year, has created an interest among the students for the subject,” said founder member of Institute of Mathematics and Applications (IMA) and president of Odisha Mathematical Society C K Mohapatra.
The survey revealed that in the competency of level Odisha students have performed above the national average of 250 like in average the score is 273 in algebra, 263 in the number system, 262 in coordinate geometry, 277 in probability and data handling and 264 in trigonometry.
“Undoubtedly, Odisha students are very strong in mathematics due to regular training and scholarships for mathematics Olympiad. But unfortunately this is not reflected in higher classes like IITs because students are facing the problem in presenting them in English medium in higher classes,” said Hadibandhu Patnaik, regional coordinator of Indian National Mathematical Olympiad (INMO).
The other three states that have performed above the national average in mathematics include Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana while rest 25 states and UTs have performed significantly lower than the national average.
The sample survey was conducted in 354 schools covering 14,082 students to assess the learning achievements in English, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and Modern Indian Languages (MIL-Odia). The class X students scored lower than the national average of 250 in other subjects like 245 in English, 249 in science, 244 in social science and 242 in MIL-Odia.
There is not much difference in the performance of students in rural and urban areas in the subjects except in Odia where the performance of rural students is lower than their urban counterparts, the survey said.
The average performance of students from government and government-aided schools in the state was significantly lower than students from private schools in all five subjects, the NAS pointed out.
Courtesy: The Times of India
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