7.1% class 3 students in Karnataka cannot read a single letter: Report
Bengaluru: A new report from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 has raised concerns about the reading abilities of class 3 students in rural Karnataka. The report reveals that 7.1% of these students, from both government and private schools, cannot read a single letter.
The findings, cited by Deccan Herald, show that 19.3 percent of class 3 students can read letters but struggle with words or sentences, while 36.2 percent can read words but not text above a class 1-level.
Only 21.5 percent of students can read class 1-level text but not class 2-level, and 15.9 percent are able to read class 2-level text.
Encouragingly, the percentage of class 3 students, who can read class-2 level textbooks, has shown a slight increase across both government and private schools.
In addition to literacy concerns, the report highlighted challenges in numerical skills. It was found that only 19 percent of government school children in class 5 and 35 percent in class 8 could perform division, compared to 25 percent and 43 percent, respectively, in private schools.
The ASER 2024 also noted a decline in the enrolment of children aged 6-14 in government schools in Karnataka, from 76 percent in 2022 to 71 percent this year.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
