A Study of Malnutrition Problem and its Relationship with Students’ Reading and Writing Abilities at the Primary School Level in Tharparkar, Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

The study investigated the nutritional status and the effects of malnutrition on students' academic performance in reading and writing abilities in different languages at the Primary level. This was a cross-sectional study; A total of (40) schools and (300) students were selected from district Tharparkar in Sindh Pakistan. This is the more vulnerable in terms of malnutrition. The height and weight of each student were measured using Anthropometric measurement tools and the SAT used to check the students' reading and writing comprehension The majority of the underweight students had a lack of reading and writing skills, whereas the majority of well-nourished students had good skills of reading and writing in all three languages e.g. Sindhi, Urdu, and English. The low level of educational performance as 58.3% against 66% malnourished were not able to read a paragraph from Sindhi and Urdu language, while (61%) malnourished groups were not able to read words and paragraphs in English.