Passage: By the time children reach class 8, the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15…
Passage: By the time children reach class 8, the bulk of them tend to be in the age range of 13 years to 15 years. But in our country, about a quarter of all children in class 8 struggle with reading simple texts and more than half are still unable to do basic arithmetic operations like division. Every year about 25 million young boys and girls from elementary school move into the life that lies for them beyond compulsory schooling. They cannot enter the workforce at least in the organized sector till they are 18. For many families, these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. Parents and children expect that such 'graduates' from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture. On the other hand, abilities in terms of academic competencies are far lower than they should be even based on curricular expectations of class 8.
Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:
1. For effective school education, parents have greater role than the governments.
2. School curriculum that conforms to today's requirements is uniform for the entire country may address the issues brought out.
Which of the assumptions given above is/are valid?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Solution
Assumption 1 is invalid: the passage does not compare the relative roles of parents and government in school education. Assumption 2 is invalid: the passage discusses lags in academic competencies but does not state that a uniform curriculum across the country would address the issue. Hence neither assumption is valid.