Lok Sabha Question No. 2395 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-08
Subject: Quality of Education in Government Schools
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Kanakmal Katara

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2395 TO BE ANSWERED ON 8 th  JULY, 2019

## Quality of Education in Government Schools

## † 2395.   SHRI KANAKMAL KATARA:

## Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  it  is  a  fact  that  quality  of  education  in  Government  schools  is  not  up to the mark as a result the parents are forced to send their wards to private schools;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the difference between the number of admissions sought in the private and Government schools during the last three years; and
- (d) the efforts made/being made by the Government to bring improvement in the quality of education in Government schools?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK')

(a) to (c) The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts periodic national surveys to assess learning achievement of children in Classes - III, V, VIII and X. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 was held on 13 th November for assessing the competencies  developed  by  the  children  at  the  grade  levels  III,  V  and  VIII  from  across  701 districts covering all the 36 States and UTs and covered 22 lakh students from 1.10 lakh schools. NAS (2017) was administered with districts as the unit of reporting  in different subject areas such  as  languages,  mathematics,  EVS/Science  and  Social  Sciences  in  the  Government  and Government aided  schools.  The  competency  based  test  was  based  on  the  Learning  Outcomes which were incorporated in the Central Rules for RTE Act by the Government of India. NAS for students of class X was held on 5 th Feb, 2018 with a district level sampling framework covering nearly 15.5 lakh students using multiple test booklets in Mathematics,  Modern  Indian Languages,  English,  Sciences  and  Social  Sciences.  District  report  cards  for  NAS  have  been shared  with  the  States  and  UTs  to  help  identify  gaps  and  devise  strategies  for further improvement.

The total enrolment in Government and Private Schools during last three years is as under:-

| Years   |   Enrolment in classes I to XII in Government Schools |   Enrolment in classes I to XII in Private Schools |
|---------|-------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| 2015-16 |                                             143152245 |                                           82421710 |
| 2016-17 |                                             137222799 |                                           80582804 |
| 2017-18 |                                             131755633 |                                           83308685 |

Source: Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2017-18 Provisional

## (d) The Central Government has taken several initiatives to improve the quality of education in Government schools which are as follows:

1. In order to focus on ensuring competencies, the Central rules to the Right of Children to Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE)  Act,  2009  have  been  amended  to  include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes, which have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States and UTs.
2. Under  Samagra  Shiksha,  funds  are  given  to  all  States  and  UTs  for  strengthening  of infrastructure and provision of other facilities in  schools to ensure that all schools meet the  prescribed  norms,  besides  other  interventions  to  improve  the  quality  of  education such as training of in-service teachers, headmasters and principals, remedial teaching for academically  weaker  students,  provision  of  library  grants  to  schools,  ICT  and  digital initiatives, strengthening of teacher education institutions, Rashtriya  Avishkar  Abhiyan, Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat, etc.
3. The online D.El.Ed. course was started from 3rd October, 2017 and 9,58,513 teachers have successfully completed the training.
4. Regulations for a four year B.Ed integrated course, to bring about qualitative improvement in teacher education, have been published in official gazette on 29 th March, 2019 and applications have been invited w.e.f. 3 rd June, 2019.
5. It has been decided to participate in the Programme  for  International Students Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2021, which is a competency based assessment.
6. Approval has been given for conducting a Census based audit called Shagunotsav of all government and government aided schools in all States and UTs.
7. MHRD has designed a 70 indicators based matrix called Performance Grading Index (PGI) to grade the States/UTs.
8. In 2019-20, approval has been given for an Integrated Teacher Training Programme to train 42 lakh teachers, and other functionaries to make classrooms learner-friendly and improving children's competencies including critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, as well as social-personal qualities such as cooperation, team work etc.
9. In 2019-20 approval has been given for a competency based School Based Assessment (SBA) at the elementary level.

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