A study on reading comprehension for grade iii pupils of primary schools in Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out grade 3 students’ present status of reading comprehension and the current practices in classroom to achieve this skill. The study also wanted to know the variations of achievement between urban and rural students as well as boys and girls of this grade. Similarly, the challenges faced by the teachers to achieve the skill were also explored. As a sample, five government primary urban schools from Gulshan thana and five government primary rural schools from Manikgong sadar thana were selected. A total of 200 students (100 boys & 100 girls) of class 3 participated from the schools. An achievement test was administered to know students’ reading comprehension and class observation as well as interview schedule was used to get the answer of the research questions. The study found that majority of the students was not able to recognize all the letters, words and the text. On an average, urban student performed comparatively better than rural students and boys performed better than girls but in some aspects girls did better. It was also found that teachers were practicing some of the strategies in a limited way and a good number of teachers had no training. Even those who had training also had forgotten training contents. The study also identified some challenges faced by the teachers and found that large class size, teaching overload, lack of congenial environment, insufficient training, students coming to schools with empty stomach, no academic support from home, lack of cooperation among parents have hindered in achieving the particular skill and also quality education. Finally, to improve students reading comprehension and their reading capacity, reading activities should be more focused in classroom as well as in early grades. Along with this, teachers’ challenges need to be addressed and scope has to be increased so that they could give more focus on practicing this skill.