Bangalore: Students from Uttar Pradesh topped in all major aspects -including performance rural children, girls, and percentage of children scoring more than 80 percent, in a survey conducted by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

The young minds from UP were ranked highest in language and mathematics, outclassing the children from the rest of the country in National Learners' Achievement Survey by the NCERT. However, there has been an improvement in learning levels overall with regards to class five Mathematics over the years. Students from the southern state Tamil Nadu (72.30 percent) topped in environmental studies closely followed by UP with a score of 67.15 percent.

Mean percentage scored by students from UP in mathematics was 72.89 percent, in language 71.12 percent and environmental studies 67.15 percent.

According to an article in the Times of India by Akshaya Mukul, the survey was done under the direction of Avtar Singh, the Head of Department of Educational Measurement and Evaluation at NCERT. The team has reportedly surveyed over one lakh students in mathematics, language environmental studies from 31 states and the report is claimed to be much more comprehensive than the Annual Status of Education Report from Pratham. The HRD ministry plans to make this comprehensive survey, conducted on an internationally-recognized principle of Item Response Theory (IRT), a regular affair. This style of survey evaluates students on each question asked than on the result of a total test.

Questions were asked to check the comprehension levels of the students and they were asked to identify, interpret and evaluate a text on the language survey. For Mathematics, Students had to answer questions on number system, geometry and subtraction based on decimal system. Questions on health and economic problems were asked for surveying on their learning of environmental studies.

Karnataka came second in maths with a score of 61.53 percent followed by Delhi with 58.89 percent, Jammu and Kashmir 58.4 percent, Madhya Pradesh 58.68 percent, West Bengal 57.74 percent and Odisha 56.02 percent. Tamil Nadu was second to UP in language with 65.89 percent followed by West Bengal with 64.29 percent, Maharashtra 63.87 percent, Karnataka 61 percent and Delhi 59.89 percent.

Girls outperformed boys in many states such as Kerala, Mizoram, Goa, Delhi, Puducherry and Daman and Diu. Mean percentage of boys is 73.34 percent in mathematics and girls are closely behind with a score of 72.49 percent. Similarly, only a marginal difference is seen in other aspects of the survey such as language and environmental studies.