New Delhi: A study conducted by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has revealed that school students spend about 45-55 percent of their classroom time in passive learning activities like listening to teachers, taking dictation etc.

The study was conducted by observing student's activities in classrooms every three minutes, for 30 minutes, in five states - Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Orissa.

The study conducted on class II, IV and VI students divided 19 activities under five subgroups. The subgroups were - Active Learning, Passive Learning, Mechanical Learning, Class Management and Off-Task Activities.

The study said that only about 20-32 percent of the time is spent by students in active learning through self studies, peer learning, completing assignments, questioning etc.

10-17 percent of the time in classroom is spent by students in mechanical work like reading aloud, rote memorization, copying etc. About 4-6 percent of student's time is spent on class management and about 8 percent on off-task activities like cross-talking, moving out of class, being inattentive etc.

The time spent by students in active learning was lowest in the case of Haryana (20.7 pc) and highest in Orissa (33.2 pc). The time spent in passive learning was lowest in Orissa (39.2 pc) and highest in Maharashtra (52.8 pc).

The study also revealed that the percentage of student's time spent in active learning was comparatively higher in mathematics as compared to the other subjects.

In Class IV and VI, the time spent in active learning in mathematics was much more than the time spent on other languages. On the contrary, more time was being spent by students in passive learning in languages than in mathematics.

Also, students spent more time in doing assignments in mathematics than in languages in all the three classes.