Why in news? According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 report enrolment in schools has improved, but the reading level of students has further dropped in the Karnataka

Highlights:

• Key findings of the report for Karnataka rural stated that closure of schools during the pandemic did not impact enrolment of students in the State.

Key Findings

• The enrolment figures jumped from 3% in 2018 to 99.8% in 2022.
• Karnataka sees an increase of enrolments in Anganwadis, much more than the national average.
• The report states that the percentage of children in class 3 in government and private schools, who can read class 2 level, dropped from 3% in 2018 to 8.6% in 2022.
• In the assessment of English reading ability to read capital letters, small letters, simple three-letter words, and short essays, Karnataka students performed better than the national average.
• Nationally, the proportion of children in classes 1 to 8 taking paid private tuition classes increased from 26.4% in 2018 to 30.5% in 2022, but in Karnataka it decreased from 11.3% in 2018 to 9.2% in 2022.
• In another positive development, the proportion of girls who were not enrolled dropped from 1.2% in 2018 to 0.4%.
• Performance of girls (9.6%) in reading level was better than boys (7.5%).

How is the assessment done ?

• The ASER reading test assesses whether a child can read letters, words, a simple paragraph at class I level of difficulty or a “story” at class II level of difficulty.
• The test is administered one on one to all children in the age group 5 to 16 in sampled households.
• Each child is marked at the highest level that she or he can reach comfortably.

Kalika Chetarike: 2022-2023

• It is learning recovery programme was introduced in order to bridge the learning gap that the lockdowns created among students of classes 1-9.
• It focuses on functional literacy and numeracy in the first three months of the academic year, followed by core competencies, depending on the grade

Vidyapravesh

• Foundation course, is taken up for the first three months under Nipun Bharat programme of NEP 2020 to teach basics through songs and stories for Classes I and II

What are objectives of the Learning Recovery Initiative?

• Development of basic literacy and numeracy skills as per the National Education Policy-2020 of the previous two grades and the essential learning outcomes of the current grade.
• By declaring the academic year 2022-23 as a learning recovery year, ensure implementation of a guided uniform educational process across the state.
• Student engagement in the learning process and focus on emotional needs of all students.
• Equipping every student to achieve grade-level learning outcomes by the beginning of the academic year 2023-24.
• Recognize the learning needs of each student and conduct classroom interaction accordingly, to meet the diversity of learning levels
• To adopt an innovative, specialized educational process with children work independently or in groups according to their learning level under the guidance of the teacher.

Question

Karnataka declared this academic year as the Kalika Chetarike varsha or learning improvement year in all state government schools. Explain the objectives of programme