Lok Sabha Question No. 125 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-03
Subject: Quality of Education
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: S.R. Parthiban

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 125 TO BE ANSWERED ON 03.02.2020

## Quality of Education

## 125. SHRI PARTHIBAN S.R.:

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

- (a) whether any survey/study has been  carried  out recently to  evaluate the quality of primary, secondary and higher education in the country;
- (b) if so, the details and the outcome thereof;
- (c) the steps taken by the Government to improve the critical thinking of students in primary and secondary education in the prevailing global scenario; and
- (d) the details of specific programmes in this regard being implemented?

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

(a)  and  (b):  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  13th  November  2017  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 recently incorporated in the Central Rules for the Right of Children to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education Act  by  the  Government  of  India.  Similarly,  National  Achievement Survey  for  Class  X  was  also  conducted  throughout  the  country  on  February  05,  2018  in  government, government aided and private schools. The learning levels of 1.5 million students in 44,304 schools across 610 districts in 34 States and UTs were assessed, in 5 subject areas of English, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and Modern Indian Language (MIL).

The NAS district report cards have been shared with the States and UTs to help in identifying gaps at the district level and devise strategies for further improvement. Subsequently, a framework of intervention has been developed and shared with States to improve the quality of learning in the schools.

(c) and (d) : The Central Government has taken the following initiatives for improving quality of education and develop critical thinking of students:

(i)   To ensure competencies, the Central rules to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 have been amended and  class-wise, subject-wise  Learning Outcomes have been shared with all States and Union Territories.

(ii)   The  online  D.El.Ed.  course was  started from  3rd  October,  2017 and  9,58,513  teachers  have successfully completed the training.

(iii)   In  order  to  provide  e-learning  material,  different  facilities  like  e-  PATHSHALA,  DIKSHA  portal, SWAYAM (Study  Webs  to  Active  Learning  for  Young  Aspiring  Minds),  SWAYAM  PRABHA  DTH Channels have been made available by the Ministry.

(iv)  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.

(v)   An integrated Teacher Training Programme titled NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers' Holistic  Advancement)  has been launched,  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.

(vi)  The  Government  of  India  has  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.

(vii)  The  Central  Board  of  Secondary  Education  (CBSE)  has  undertaken  various  examination  reforms  to promote competencies and quality of learning :

(a) Change in design of question papers with nearly 33% increase in internal choice in all  major subjects for  classes  X  and  XII  and  introduction  of  objective  type  questions.  It  has  been  decided  to  include  10% competency based Questions in the annual examination of class 10 in the current year.

(b) Experiential  learning  has  been  introduced  from  2019-20  to  promote  self  thinking,  creativity  and effective study skills among students.