Parents spend time and money to make sure that their children receive a good quality education. They buy expensive books for them, spend on their transportation, and give them time at home. In return, they receive report cards at the end of the year showing the grades their child has received. Then there are sports, debates, speech competitions and art activities. But do we ever check if the same child has achieved a Basic Education Standard?
Do we really understand what primary school education is? Or what is education for children who complete primary school? We try to answer this question in this and other similar articles on education found on the EAST website.
Primary education is considered Basic Education. There is a Basic Education Standard that children must achieve. This standard would help us understand what we really mean by quality primary education.
Before we tell you why Basic Education Standard is important, here is a simple definition of Basic or Primary Education Standard:
Firstly, it’s your child’s ability to read an approximately 200-word story or essay. The child should be able to comprehend this text. Secondly, your child should be able to write at least seven sentences around a topic, with not more than three mistakes in grammar. These seven sentences have to be of the child and not rote memorized or dictated by an adult.
A child should be able to achieve this standard by the end of class one. By the end of class three, it has to achieve, or it’s too late.
By achieving the Basic Education Standard, students become independent learners. They can do their homework independently, prepare for exams without help, and do not require tuition at home. Children who acquire Basic Education Standard are confident as they know how to read and write without any help.
After achieving this standard, children are ready to learn more from books other than their syllabus. They read library books, magazines, websites, and newspapers. It gives them good exposure and increases their knowledge and intelligence.
Basic Education Standard prepares students for higher education and makes children more ambitious. It prepares them for the job market and business environment of the future.
A good way to check if your child has achieved the Basic Education Standard is by using the BEST (Basic Education Standard Test). It’s a simple test of reading and writing ability that can show you if your child has achieved basic education standards (Please contact: Humaira@eastonline.com.pk to get a copy of this test).
Around 3500 BESTÂ (Basic Educational Standard Test) were conducted for the students of private schools in Karachi, Pakistan, during the first six months of the year 2011.
Only 6% could pass it!
Here’s some more bad news.
We conducted BEST for the students of classes three to six.
That’s right!
6% result is not for students of classes one to three.
It includes students of higher classes!
Meanwhile, almost 80% of BEST can be achieved before class one (by the end of preprimary/Montessori).
Only two things are needed: