The Chamba and Sirmaur districts of Himachal Pradesh (HP) are at the lowest level when it comes to learning levels of school kids (6-14 years) across the state, reveals Annual Status of Education Report-2022.  The report, released recently, found that the Chamba district has 0.9 per cent of children not enrolled in any school, which is the highest in HP, followed by Sirmaur 0.8 and Kullu 0.7 per cent.

The percentage of children in Standard III to V in the Chamba district who can do at least subtraction is 39.5 per cent, the lowest in the state, while the second worst is Sirmaur with 40.6 per cent of such students.

The percentage of children in Standard VI to VIII who can read Standard II level text is 73.3 per cent in Chamba, which is the worst, while in Sirmaur, it is second worst at 75 per cent.

The percentage of children in Standard VI to VIII who can do division is the lowest in Sirmaur at 36.1 per cent while Chamba posts the second-worst figure at 37.2 per cent.

Kinnaur is at the top in the percentage of children in Standard III to V, who can read Standard II level text at 57.9 per cent, followed by Una at 57 per cent.

Una (69.8 per cent) and Hamirpur (69 per cent) top in the percentage of children of Standard 3rd to 5th who can do at least subtraction. Hamirpur (61.7 per cent) topped in the state in the percentage of children of Standard VI to VIII who can divide numbers.

The reading ability of children has come down drastically in the state. The percentage of children in Standard V who can read Standard II level text has fallen from 76.9 per cent in 2018 to 61.3 per cent, a decrease of more than 15 per cent.

The percentage of children in Standard III who can read Standard II level text has fallen from 47.7 per cent in 2018 to 28.4 per cent in 2022, a drop of close to 20 per cent which is the highest drop registered by any state in the country.

Among the children in Standard III, 5.1 per cent cannot even read letters, 17.9 per cent can read letters, but not words or higher, 20.1 per cent can read words but not Standard I level text or higher, 28.4 per cent can read Standard I level text but not Standard II level text, and 28.5 per cent can read Standard II level text.

The story is the same when it comes to arithmetic. The percentage of children in Standard III who can do at least subtraction has fallen from 50.1 per cent in 2018 to 41.6 per cent in 2022.

The percentage of children in standard V who can do division has fallen from 56.6 per cent in 2018 to 42.6 per cent in 2022. The percentage of children in Standard VIII who can divide has fallen from 61 per cent to 52.3 per cent.

Among the children in Standard III, 39.5 per cent can recognise numbers up to 99, but cannot do subtraction, 32.3 per cent can do subtraction but cannot do division and 9.2 per cent can do division.

English comprehension has also fallen among students. The percentage of students in standard V, who can read English sentences, has fallen from 63.2 per cent in 2016 to 56.3 per cent in 2022.  Among the children in standard III, 39.4 per cent can read small letters but not words or more, 21.1 per cent can read words but not sentences, and 26.1 per cent can read sentences.