EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE REPORT :

Objectives : The objectives of the study were to investigate whether the

1. primary school students achieve the MLL.
2. achievement of the students with, and without pre-primary education is different.
3. socio-economic status is significantly related to primary school achievement.
4. school developed educational abilities are correlated with school achievement.
5. school climate has any effect on school achievement.

Variables : The Independent variables were

1. Intelligence
2. School Climate
3. Socio-economic status

The Dependent variable was Achievement of the two groups.

Tools :

     A. Intelligence Scale (Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices)

2. Socio-Economic Status Scale :- The socio-economic status scale used in our present study, was developed and standardised by Ms. Ruby Dkhar for her Ph.D. work in Education in the year 1997.
3. School Climate Scale :- The school climate scale was developed by Dr. Motilal Sharma.
4. Achievement Scales :- In this study, it was decided to test the students in two subjects. (a) Arithmetic and (b) Hindi Language.

1. Arithmetic Test – The test was an adaptation of Dr. S. Dubey’s* (1991) test.
2. Hindi Language Test : The criteria included in this test were the competencies laid down in Minimum Levels of Learning at Primary Stage published by National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi (1991).

Population : The population comprised of students of class V in primary schools of Allahabad district having pre-primary sections. Two blocks under the Allahabad district – ‘Chail’ and ‘Mooratganj’ were selected.

Sample : The final sample consisted of 19 schools that had been, later on clustered into following 15 centers :

1. Pawan I and II 
2. Giriya Khalsa
3. Manderi
4. Chauradih
5. Mander.
6. Kadilpur
7. Bamrauli I and II
8. Akbarpur
9. Sallahpur I and II
10. Kasendha
11. Puramufti
12. Matpur
13. Chail
14. Manauri I and II
15. Mohammadpur

The number of students in the PP group was 137 whereas the number of students in the WPP group was 181. Thus, the of total sample consisted 318 students.

Research Findings and Implications :

It was found that in primary schools various incentives are given to students, in the form of rice-distribution and scholarships, whereas in pre-primary section no such incentives exist. The result is that pre-primary sections are almost deserted by students, and guardians. If they have to admit the child to school they get him/her admitted in class one and not in pre-primary section. This was found to be one of the most significant reasons for poor attendance reported in the primary schools of the villages.

1. As it has been observed during the course of our study, that many pre-primary school education institutions do not have their own building and are running in one or two rooms. There is no play ground and no arrangement for drinking water in these institutions. It seems, these schools are established for show only and they have failed to stimulate young children in real sense. In order to provide an effective early stimulation there is a great need for systematic and scientific pre-primary school education programme.
2. Pre-primary school education programme should be non-formal because it is not the stage of reading, writing and arithmetic. But the irony is that it is completely formal in all nursery schools. The main reason is that most of the pre-primary school teachers and principals are not nursery trained. They are not familiar with the principles of child development. The same is true also for parents. Mass awareness programmes and regulating measures are urgently needed to cope with the problems.
3. To reduce the number of drop-outs, wastage, and stagnation and to promote the universalisation of primary education, it must be resolved by the educationists and policy makers that before the primary education all children of three to five years age group should be given nursery education so that they can make their rapport with the schools.
4. As most of the psychologists, educationists and policy-makers would agree that the pre-primary school years of a child, constitute the period of his/her maximum learning and intellectual development and hence of gross potential educational significance, therefore there is an urgent need to provide a thrust to all educational programmes that are directed towards promoting and strengthening the permeation of pre-primary and primary education, among all segments of the child population, ranging from 3 years to 8 years of age.
5. For a pre-primary school programme to be effective, however, certain features appear to be important : careful planning and implementation; low child to staff ratio; high level of professional support; and moderate level of parent’s involvement in the programme, and a cognitively focused programme, designed within a clear framework of educational methods and goals.
6. Our village children are by and large first generation learners and are deprived of stimulation at home, as the parents being poor and illiterate, are not in a position to give them much support. Thus, it reduces itself to the fact that the responsibility to give stimulation and compensatory education has to be borne by both organised governmental and non-governmental services such as the early childhood education centres.

Reliability :

• Reliability of the Arithmetic test as estimated by the Kuder-Richardson method was found to be 0.75.
• Reliability of Hindi Test (objective part) as estimated by Kuder-Richardson formula = 0.95
• Reliability of Hindi test (subjective part) as estimated by Split-Half method = 0.78.
• The reliability of the socio-economic status scale, obtained on the data of the present sample, was found to be very low in the range of 0.02.