37% Class 1 students failed to attain reading-writing skills amid Covid-19: Maharashtra minister

Mumbai: As many as 12,000 students or 37 per cent of the total students in Class I in Maharashtra could not attain reading and writing skills due to the COVID-19 situation, school education minister Varsha Gaikwad told the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

Responding to a starred a question raised by MLC Dr Sudhir Tambe, the minister said the finding was from a survey that was conducted covering 1,47,277 students from Classes 1 to 5.

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"The number of students from Class 1 stood at 32,888. It was found in the survey that 12,300 students, or 37 per cent, had failed to attain minimum skills to read and write. It is the highest percentage of students failing to attain minimum skills among all classes,” she said.

“The cumulative percentage of the students who failed to attain reading and writing skills stands at 14.76 per cent. This issue will be addressed with online and offline training sessions conducted by the teachers. Once the training is over, there will be a fresh survey to find out how beneficial it was," the minister told the Council.

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In other news, Maharashtra school education minister Varsha Gaikwad today announced that the state government has established Sakhi Savitri committees in schools to help in curbing dropout rates, upholding child rights, mobilising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds and creating an inclusive atmosphere.