Azim Premji University has recently conducted a field study to find the impact of COVID-19 on education. The study aimed to find out how badly were students; especially those in lower classes were impacted by the sudden change or closure of schools.
Key Points
- The study conducted by Azim Premji University was titled ‘Loss of Learning during the Pandemic’.
- Under the study, 16,067 primary schoolchildren (between classes two and six) in 1,137 government schools across five States were surveyed.
- The field study was conducted by 2000 teachers and 400 members of the Azim Premji Foundation.
- As per the study, students not only missed out on the regular curricular learning but are also ‘forgetting’ what they had learned in the previous year.
- As per the findings of the study, on average, 92% of students from classes 2nd to 6th have at least lost one foundational ability in languages that they may have acquired in previous years.
- The percentage for loss of foundational ability for mathematics is 82%.
- Foundational abilities are the things that form the basis for further learning. Some examples of foundational abilities are addition, reading a paragraph with comprehension, subtraction.
- The foundation abilities in Mathematics include identifying single and two-digit numbers; using basic arithmetic operations to solve problems; performing arithmetic operations; drawing inferences from data, etc.
As per the study, teachers should be given proper time to cover this deficit after the schools reopen. Some of the suggestions are extending the academic year well into 2021, eliminating vacations, and reconfiguring the syllabus.
