48% students commute to school on foot: Survey

Tribune News Service

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, May 26

As many as 72 per cent of children have access to digital devices at home, 96 per cent like coming to school and 94 per cent say they feel safe there, according to the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 conducted by the Education Ministry.

The survey also pointed out that 25 per cent schools lack of parental support in students’ learning

Meanwhile, 48 per cent of students commute to school on foot, 18 per cent on bicycle and only nine per cent have access to school and public transport. Around eight per cent students commute to school using their own transport (two-wheeler) and just three per cent a four-wheeler, according to the survey in which 34 lakh students of 1.18 lakh schools in 720 districts from rural and urban areas across the country participated.

Conducted for Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10 in government, government-aided and private schools last year, the survey aims to enable analysis of results and remedial action at appropriate levels.

According to the survey, 87 per cent schools provide guidance on how parents can support children in learning and 25 per cent of them claimed to be facing lack of support from parents in students’ learning. Only 51 per cent of students confirmed the availability of books or magazines for parents at home, 91 per cent said they asked questions to teachers during classroom transactions and 89 per cent said they shared lessons taught in schools with family.

As many as 18 per cent said their mothers cannot read or write, seven per cent said they were literate without schooling while five per cent said their schooling was below the primary level.

Subjects covered in the survey included language, mathematics and EVS for Classes 3 and 5; language, mathematics, science and social science for Class 8; and language, mathematics, science, social science and English for Class 10.

Only 58 per cent teachers participated in discussions on the new National Education Policy (NEP), as per the survey in which five lakh teachers participated.

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