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| ‘62% class V students in rural areas can’t read class II text’ | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 11: Nearly 62 per cent of Class V students in rural Jammu and Kashmir cannot read a Class II-level text, a new report has said, flagging poor foundational learning as one of the biggest challenges facing the Union Territory’s education sector.
Titled “A New Vision for J&K and a New Strategy for Realising that Vision”, the report draws on the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024. It says only 37.8 per cent of rural Class V students have reached the reading level expected of a child in Class II.
The government-private gap is stark. According to the ASER data cited, just 21.8 per cent of Class V students in government schools could read a Class II-level text, compared with 60.3 per cent in private schools, a difference of 38.5 percentage points.
Both sectors have improved since 2022. Reading proficiency among Class V students in government schools rose from 18.1 per cent to 21.8 per cent, a gain of 3.7 percentage points. Private schools moved from 54.9 per cent to 60.3 per cent, a gain of 5.4 points.
Because private schools gained more, the divide has not narrowed. By these figures, it has widened slightly, from 36.8 percentage points in 2022 to 38.5 in 2024.
The problem does not fade as children move up. Only 16.7 per cent of Class III students surveyed in rural J&K could read a Class II-level text. Among Class VIII students, 58.5 per cent met the benchmark, which means more than 40 per cent of them could not read a text meant for Class II.
The report identified deficiencies in education, healthcare and nutrition as major components of J&K’s social challenges. It urges greater emphasis on “lifelong learning and foundational literacy and numeracy” and says strengthening learning outcomes should be central to a broader development strategy.
The institute has proposed an investment of Rs 29,953 crore over five years for social development, spanning education, healthcare and other interventions. This is part of its proposed framework and is not an approved government allocation.
The findings are based on ASER 2024 data collected from rural areas. They do not reflect a fresh statewide assessment conducted in 2026. |
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