Mint Explainer: Why Indian schools continue to fail rural teens

livemint.com:

Mint decodes the study and what it means for the Indian economy. The teens contacted for the study were given five tasks. For instance, they were asked to read basic text in their own language to test their ability to read it as sentences with ease and without making too many mistakes rather than as a string of words.

Those who were unable to read sentences were asked to read words from a list. Those unable to read the words correctly were tested for the ability to recognise letters. Similarly, for the English test, the child was assessed for the ability to recognize capital and small letters, and then read words and sentences.

On being able to read correctly, the child was asked to translate the text in local language. For the arithmetic test, the adolescent was first given a couple of two-digit subtraction problems. On able to identify the subtraction sign and solve the problems, the child was tested for the ability to solve a division problem.

Those who could not solve subtraction problems were tested for their ability to recognise numbers. The adolescents were also asked to do some simple everyday calculations involving time (hours and minutes), weight and length, some financial calculations involving managing budgets and applying discount and tested on their ability to read and carry out instructions on oral rehydration salts (ORS) packet. Information on awareness of digital products and services, access to devices and the internet and usage of smartphones and computers.