City schools low on performance: Study

Think twice before you say that a city school is the best. According to ‘Quality Education Study (QES)’, a study conducted by Wipro and Educational Initiatives, revealed interesting insights about the decline in the students’ performance in city schools.

The findings of the study, released on Saturday, here, showed that Bangalore scored the lowest in the performance composite index amongst other metropolitan cities.

QES, the first of its kind assessment exploring quality education, was a three-year study which aimed at expanding the meaning of “quality” education in schools. The holistic study covered 89 schools perceived as the “top schools” by parents and children across the country while conducting comprehensive test among  23,000 students and 800 teachers.

Based on the study, one third of the city schools were affiliated with the different boards viz, CBSE, CISCE and Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination (KSEE). These schools scored less than two on a scale of 12 in performance compared to the schools in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Speaking about the study, Manager of Wipro Applying Thought in Schools Sreekanth Sreedharan, said, “The study has revealed some surprising facts when the first edition was conducted. The second edition of QES has definitely showed some drastic results and has thrown light on the quality of education at these top schools. The students’ performance in the schools was lower in terms of concept understanding and application. However, the QES will be shared with the schools and more interactive sessions with the schools will be conducted through the web media.” 

Some of the significant findings were the student attitudes and values that could over time grow into biases and prejudices that could affect society in many ways.

The study also pointed out that constructive methods were not practised in the classroom and also revealed a huge difference in how principals and teachers view co-scholastic areas and the facility and time and they actually and provide in their schools.