Odisha students rank above national average in maths: Survey

Bhubaneswar: The Temple City of Odisha considered as eastern India’s education hub has earned a rare distinction as it has surpassed the national average in mathematics, a survey revealed.

National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted by National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) is considered to be the largest ever national assessment survey in the country and is amongst the largest in the world.

The Class X students of the state secured higher points over and above the national average. While the national mean was recorded at 250, Odisha registered 265.

What is encouraging for the state is, the students of government, aided and private schools fared well as they scored much above than the national mean i.e, 260 (239), 266 (248) and 295 (269) respectively.

The above figures indicate that the privately managed schools performed better than government and aided schools.

The survey conducted in five subjects – English, Maths, Science, Social Science and MIL – indicated that Odisha performed below the overall average score in all subjects except Mathematics, which indicates there is need for immediate attention towards improvement in learning levels.

The first of its kind survey will provide meaningful information to policy makers and other stakeholders.

The pan-India exercise tested competency of the students in geometry, mensuration, trigonometry, algebra, number system, co-ordinate geometry, statistics, probability & data handling.

In the test done under third party verification, the gender-wise segregation showed equality among boys and girls. The figures mirrored at 265 as against the national mean of 250. However, the urban students performed marginally better than their rural counterparts. The score was 269 and 265.