Lok Sabha Question No. 2862 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-07
Subject: Drop in Reading Ability among School Going Children
Ministry: Education
Asked by: S. Jothimani

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-2862 ANSWERED ON - 07/08/2023

## DROP IN READING ABILITY AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN

2862. MS. S. JOTHIMANI

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  the  budgetary  expenditure  for  primary  education  and  foundational learning, scheme-wise during the last three years;
- (b) whether  the  Government  is  aware  of  the  learning  outcome  report  published  by  the Annual Status of Education Report where it was reported that only 69.9 per cent students of class VIII can read at least basic text in 2022, falling from 73 per cent in 2018;
- (c) whether the Government has any plan to ensure the learning outcomes among school going children and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  studies  to  determine  the  learning  outcomes among primary school students and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

(SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

- (a): The  Department  of  School  Education  & Literacy had launched the Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  of  Samagra  Shiksha  -  an  Integrated  Scheme  for  School  Education  by subsuming  the  erstwhile  Centrally  Sponsored  Schemes  of  Sarva  Shiksha  Abhiyan  (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) from 2018-19. Foundational Learning is an essential component of Samagra Shiksha. The scheme has been aligned  with  recommendations  of  the  National  Education  Policy:  2020  (NEP:2020)  and continued from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

The Central share allocated during the last three financial years and current financial year for Elementary Education under Samagra Shiksha is given below:

(Rs.in crore)

| Year    |   Central Share Allocated |
|---------|---------------------------|
| 2020-21 |                   28681.8 |
| 2021-22 |                   28388   |
| 2022-23 |                   35297.2 |
| 2023-24 |                   35321.1 |

(b): Achievement  survey  released  in  the  Annual  Status  of  Education  Report  (ASER)  is conducted by a non-governmental organization.

(c): The  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  of  Samagra  Shiksha  is  an  Integrated  Scheme  for school  education  extending  from  pre-school  to  class  XII  and  aims  to  ensure  inclusive  and equitable  quality  education  at  all  levels  of  school  education.  Samagra  Shiksha  focuses  on improvement in quality of education by providing support for different interventions like inservice  training  of  teachers  and  school  heads,  conduct  of  achievement  surveys,  composite school  grant  to  every  school  for  providing  a  conducive  learning  environment,  grants  for library,  sports  and  physical  activities,  etc.  Under  the  scheme,  financial  assistance  is  also provided to  States  and  UTs  for  undertaking  various  activities  to  ensure  universal  access  to education  including  opening/strengthening  of  new  schools  upto  senior  secondary  level, construction  of  school  buildings  &  additional  classrooms,  up-gradation  and  running  of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, setting up of residential schools/hostels, 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.

National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) has been launched under Samagra Shiksha which aims that every child in the country attains foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) and e-content for the same has been released in DIKSHA platform.

NISHTHA -  an  integrated  training  programme  has  been  introduced  for  different stages of school education for Teachers, Head Teachers/Principals and other stakeholders in Educational Management.

VIDYA  PRAVESH -  Guidelines  for  three-month  Play-based  School  Preparation Module for Grade-I Children, has been released on 29th July, 2021 to ensure that all children are exposed to a warm and welcoming environment when they enter Grade-I.

(d): 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.

Also, Foundational Learning Study (FLS), first of its kind large scale assessment & benchmarking study  for  oral  reading  fluency  with  comprehension  in  Indian  languages  was conducted in March 2022 in 20 languages, which are being used as a medium of instruction in various  state/UTs  i.e.  Assamese,  Bengali,  English,  Hindi,  Kannada,  Malayalam,  Manipuri, Marathi,  Mizo,  Odia,  Punjabi,  Tamil,  Telugu,  Urdu,  Bodo,  Garo,  Khasi,  Konkani,  Gujarati and Nepali. The reports for FLS are available at https://dsel.education.gov.in/fls\_2022.