Mumbai students not as skilled as eastern zones in reading: MUMBAI: Students from city schools are not as good as their counterparts from the eastern region when it comes to reading abilities. A nationwide survey done to check English proficiency of high school students (Std VIII-XII) reveals that those in the west zone, comprising Mumbai, have poorer skills. But they are better than students from the north and south zones. The English Proficiency Global Survey Test by Education First (EF), with a sample size of 3,000 across the country, reveals that reading skills of Indian students across the east, west, north and south zones are very poor and has great scope for improvement. While the national English proficiency index (EPI) in reading is 53.6%, in the west it is 59.6% and in the east 68.8%. Both genders have weak reading skills across the country, which is reflected in the national average. Schools in the western zone offer students non-academic material like general books, newspapers and magazines to read. Despite this, the reading skills of students are poor and schools need to work on them, said Sunitha Perumal, country product manager, EF International Academy. On the contrary, Indian students are very good at conversing in English, reveals the survey. Indian students have a high proficiency in vocabulary, with a national average of 80.4%. Under this parameter too, the EPI of the western region (84.1%) stands second with schools from the south having a proficiency of 84.2%. This can be attributed to increasing viewership of English movies and English cartoon serials on television, the survey said. Students from the western zone were not the best even in listening skills. The eastern zone topped with an EPI of 75.9%, while the western zone had an EPI of 74.6%. The global group offers training in various programmes, including language training and cultural exchanges. The agency claims to have a mix of students from various education boards, including international ones. Gauri Kedia, a Std VIII student of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai, topped the country in the proficiency test with 99%. The survey concludes that schools from the south zone need to improve on reading and listening skills, compared to the other zones, while the eastern zone needs to focus on vocabulary. Perumal said students from across countries will be tested on these parameters and a comparative report will be out soon. The agency has initiated similar surveys in other Asian countries
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 14:22:07 +0000
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