Lok Sabha Question No. 3642 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-08
Subject: Education Standards in Primary and Middle Schools
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Rakesh Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3642 TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.08.2022

## Education Standards in Primary and Middle Schools

## †3642. SHRI RAKESH SINGH:

## Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  has  assessed  the  educational  standards  of  students  in  middle schools and if so, the details thereof;

- (b) whether the Government is likely to take cognizance of the report according to which the students  in  primary  and  middle  schools  are  weak  in  studies  and  are  unable  to  answer  the questions of grades lower than theirs; and

(c) if so, whether the Government is likely to take any corrective steps at the Central level in view  of  the  need  to  improve  the  teaching  and  training  standards  of  classes  up  to  middle schools in the country?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a)  & (b): The Government of India has been implementing a programme of sample based National Achievement Survey (NAS) aimed at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle period of three years. The last round of NAS was held on November 12, 2021 across India covering students of grades 3, 5,  8 and 10. The aim and objective of NAS is to evaluate children's progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the health of the education system, so as  to  take  appropriate  steps  for  remedial  actions  at  different  levels.  National,  State/UT  and District  Reports  for  NAS  2021  have  been  released  on  25.05.2022  and  are  available  at http://nas.gov.in.

Ministry of Education has organized workshops on Post-NAS interventions with all the States/UTs including a National Workshop on 28 th July,  2022 to  collaborate & support activities in the States/UTs to improve the achievement of learning outcomes across classes. (c) A National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level through an Integrated  Teacher  Training  Programme  called  NISHTHA  -  National  Initiative  for  School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement was launched on 21 st August, 2019. The aim of this integrated teacher training programme was to build the capacities of around 42 lakh elementary teachers and Heads of Schools, faculty members of SCERTs and DIETs and Block Resource Coordinators and Cluster Resource Coordinators. In view of the COVID  pandemic,  'NISHTHA-Online  was  launched  on  06th  October,  2020  and  the remaining training of NISHTHA at elementary level was conducted online by the NCERT on the DIKSHA platform using high quality professionally made e-content. In  2021-22,  NISHTHA  has  been  extended  to  Foundational  Literacy  and  Numeracy and secondary level, for Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary level teachers with a focus on improvement in quality of teachers and learning outcomes of students. secondary/senior secondary level teachers was launched on 29th July, 2021. The training programme aims to cover around 10 Lakh Teacher and School Heads at Secondary Level across all States and UTs.  NCERT  has  developed  a  package  including  13  Online  Courses  with  12  Generic

NISHTHA  2.0  (Secondary Level) -online on DIKSHA  for modules and 56 subject specific modules for NISHTHA 2.0

NISHTHA  3.0-  Foundational  Literacy  and  Numeracy  (FLN)  in  online  mode  on DIKSHA platform for teachers and school heads of pre-primary to class V was launched on 7th September, 2021. The NISHTHA 3.0 - FLN envisions covering nearly 25 Lakh Teacher and  School  Heads  at  Pre-Primary  and  Primary  Level  across  all  states  and  UTs.  A  special package consisting of 12 online modules has been developed by NCERT for this purpose, as per the objectives of NIPUN Bharat Mission.

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