India, March 27 -- The latest preliminary report on the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) programme by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has found that while students in civic-run schools are showing steady improvement in basic reading and arithmetic skills, significant learning gaps continue to persist, particularly in comprehension and higher-order problem-solving.

One of the key concerns raised in the report is the drop in performance in the second round of assessments, largely attributed to teacher absence owing to election-related duties.

The FLN programme, which assesses the ability of children below the age of 10 to read, write and understand basic mathematics, currently covers around 120,000 students from Class...