Girls are better at reading comprehension than boys, according to the National Achievement Survey by National Council of Educational Research and Training.
The findings are from a report for which the sample was from class eight students.
Performance of urban students was also found to be higher than rural students in reading comprehension.
In mathematics, science and social science there wasn't much difference between the boys and girls. There was a marked difference in performance in science between urban and rural students, with rural students doing much better than the urban.
The schools surveyed did not account for the schools where the field workers couldn't reach due to disturbances in the area due to socio-political reasons.
Of the students tested 3/4th were from the age group of 13-14 years.
The research reported that in their sample size only 7% students were physically challenged.
For the survey on class five students data from many northeast states including Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh were unavailable. Data from West Bengal and Jharkhand was also unavailable.
The NAS survey had published data from class three, five and eight. It is a flagship programme under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan .
NCERT joint director Prof S Rajaram Sharma was quoted by TOI as saying: "To me, the survey findings are diagnostic.Since there are sweeping remarks about schooling doing badly, we are right-positioning ourselves to state where we stand. There is no doubt we have a long way to go. This is a dipstick survey. Good research will pave the way for us to get down and improve.''
