Students are becoming weak in basic mathematics and intensive reading.

According to the study, the number of students with mathematical understanding less than the high-school level has increased thirty times in five years.- Symbolic photo

Students at the world’s top universities are falling behind in even basic math and reading, with 1,800 University of California professors writing an open letter warning that new undergraduate students don’t even know middle-school level (grades 6-8) math. They have to teach this mathematics again.

At the same time, according to the San Diego study, the number of students with mathematical understanding below the high-school level has increased thirtyfold in five years. Institutions like Harvard are having to shorten the curriculum because students are not able to focus on complex sentences. What are the main reasons for this decline, know…

Decreased attention span due to social media

Smartphones and social media have reduced attention span. According to the OECD, students are not reading long and complex texts. In America, in the 1990s, 60% of children read books avidly, now only 37% are left. Students scan superficially, which weakens their ability to understand the language in depth.

mandatory assessment– Control possible through cold calling: Professor of Berkeley. Meena Aganagik says, ‘The problem can be solved by implementing mandatory assessment and suddenly asking students questions in the classroom, surprise pen-paper test. To prevent grade inflation and cheating through AI, it is necessary to check eligibility in admission and ban gadgets in the classroom. Only strict criteria and strict grading will prevent students from coming unprepared.

Foundation weak – Colleges have inherited this problem from schools. According to expert Jessica Hooton Wilson, there was a loss of students due to the closure of schools in Corona. Many students reach college, but their basic understanding is as weak as if they never went to high school. PISA and NAEP data show that education levels had started falling even before the pandemic. In education reforms, emphasis on soft skills by removing concrete facts and basic syllabus weakened the foundation.

Challenging to test – More than 90% of US colleges made standardized tests like the SAT optional or discontinued after the pandemic. In schools, marks are easily given to children to please them. As a result, even those who get ‘perfect scores’ in high school fail basic math and language by the time they reach college. The university has no way of checking whether the incoming student is eligible or not.

shortcut culture According to a study by British think-tank HEPI and Berkeley, 94% of students are taking the help of AI and passing without studying. Professors are also under pressure to give good marks so as to avoid bad feedback. When AI is giving ‘A’ grades without any hard work, then the motivation to learn among the students is almost gone.

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