The national learning achievement of grade eight students has not exceeded 49 percent, said the Enrollment Review Office (ERO) issuing a report on Monday.

The achievement rate among students of the same grade in urban areas averaged 52 percent, whereas the corresponding figure for rural area students stood at 45 percent.

The students´ achievement was determined on the basis of the marks received by the best performing and worst performing students at hundreds of schools.
At the same time, the students of private schools scored 63 percent, whereas those of the community schools lagged behind with 44 percent.
The study has pointed out that peer group, extracurricular activities, economic background, moral behavior, the parents´ treatment of their children and teachers´ skill are the most important factors affecting students´ performance and the progress in their learning capacity.

The ERO, under the Ministry of Education (MoE), had made the students fill-up questionnaires to standardize the quality of education the students are currently receiving.

The study has concluded that just one method of teaching for every student has proven to be ineffective in developing the learning capacity of students.
Speaking at the joint program organized by Education Journalist´s Group and Department of Education, Under Secretary of the ERO and the member of the study team Bhola Raj Kafle shared that the learning capacity of the students of those schools which lag behind in the academic calendar and are ill equipped to address students´ problem are showing the least progress in their study.

“The study has revealed that there has been a rapid rise and fall in the performance of same student within a year," said Kafle.
The ERO spent Rs 30 million to complete the report in two years, he mentioned. The research was conducted in 25 districts of all five development regions. As many as 48,682 students from 1,201 schools were made to fill-up the questionnaire, he added.

A DoE official Rabindra Budhapriti mentioned at the program that teachers should be accountable for good and bad performances of their students. The ERO is the government authority under the MoE that studies the progress in education at different levels of secondary education.

source: republica,17 June 2013