Dear Friends and Students
Jan 17, 2012, the Times of India published an article
“Reading, maths ability declining in kids: Survey”. The national figure for the
proportion of children in standard V able to read standard II texts dropped
from 53.7% (2010) to 48.2(2011). In the case of arithmetic, there are far more
worrying signs. The proportion of standard III children who can solve a
two-digit subtraction problem with borrowing dropped from 36.3% (2010) to 29.9%
(2011)”. This was a decade-back story in India. I don’t have the latest data. I
am sure post corona, numbers might have fallen to similar levels.
Now let us hear the story of the USA. In 2022, the National
Centre for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted a special administration of
the NAEP long-term trend (LTT) reading and mathematics assessments for age 9
students to examine student achievement during the COVID-19
pandemic. Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined by 5 points
in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest
average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first-ever score decline
in mathematics
(https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=38)
In Europe, looking at reading performance over a longer
time span, performance did not significantly change in most countries between
2009 and 2018. The EU average performance in mathematics remained stable also
over 2009-2018, although trends differ across Member States
(education.ec.europa.eu/)
On the other side, the researchers found that “routine and
frequent use of mobile devices appear to be associated with behavioral problems
in childhood.” (Concordia
University). This is also another reason for
the performance drop. When someone is watching excessive video content,
obviously the reading performance drops. The thinking ability or Math ability
dips! This is a natural consequence. The question is not about particular
performance during time and country. In general, there is no big positive story
over time!
While we are talking about one extreme, the other extreme
looks completely different. Now we are talking about AI as a Teacher. Harvard's
New Computer Science Teacher Is a Chatbot!! True, I am not kidding!
Starting this fall, the most prestigious Computer Science 50: Introduction to
Computer Science (CS50) will be encouraged to use AI to help them debug code,
give feedback on their designs, and answer individual questions about error
messages and unfamiliar lines of code. The
new approach will not use ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot, both of which are popular
among programmers. Malan says the tools are "currently too helpful."
Instead, Harvard has developed its own large language model, a "CS50
bot" that will be "similar in spirit," but will focus on
"leading students toward an answer rather than handing it to them,” he
says. I am sure this is going to be a future model across the world.
When a kid is having so many diversions and AI becomes a
teacher for such kids, how to do math and reading abilities impact? It is the
million-dollar question. How do we see this convergence? How do we read these
extreme situations across the world? How does it impact an underperformer and a
superior performer? This is going to be an interesting research problem for
social scientists.
Everybody has a solution but we are not able to implement
it because we are also partly succumbed to these extremes. It is the
responsibility of parents to handle their individual cases. That is the only
feasible solution rather than suggesting large-scale systems and processes!
Parents, be mindful of your child's growth and ensure a
balanced approach to technology to promote their well-being and development.
Ravi Saripalle
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