Lok Sabha Question No. 2836 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-07
Subject: Assessment of Learning outcomes of Students at Primary Level
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Krishna Pal Singh Yadav, Unmesh Bhaiyyasaheb Patil, Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhepatil, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Rita Bahuguna Joshi

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 2836 ANSWERED ON - 07/08/2023

## Assessment of Learning outcomes of Students at Primary Level

## 2836.   DR. KRISHNA PAL SINGH YADAV:

SHRI UNMESH BHAIYYASAHEB PATIL:

DR. SUJAY RADHAKRISHNA VIKHE PATIL:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT:

PROF. RITA BAHUGUNA JOSHI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the types of assessments being conducted to measure learning outcomes of students, particularly at the Primary level;
- (b) whether  the  Government  is  planning  to  use  learning  outcomes  to  contextualize  and  adopt requirement-specific interventions;
- (c) whether the States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh  and  Maharashtra have  utilized  results  of these assessments;
- (d) if so, the initiatives and plans taken by the States for large scale assessments; and
- (e) if not, the steps being taken by the Government to encourage adoption of these assessments by the States?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (e)  The Government of India has been implementing a rolling programme of sample based National Achievement Survey (NAS) aimed at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle of period of three  years.  The  National  Council  of  Educational  Research  and  Training  (NCERT)  has  been periodically conducting NAS since 2001. The 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. The last round of NAS was conducted on 12.11.2021 and had assessed students in  Language, Mathematics  & Environmental Science  for class  3  &  5;  Language,  Mathematics,  Science  &  Social  Science  for  class  8  and  Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and English for class 10. About 34 lakh students of 1.18 lakh schools of 720 districts from both rural and urban areas were assessed from (a) Government Schools  (Central  Government  and  State  Government)  (b)  Government  Aided  Schools;  and  (c) Private Unaided Schools.

Further, National, State and District report card of NAS 21 demonstrating the performance of students from each type of schools, including Government Schools (Central Government and State Government), Government Aided Schools and Private Unaided Schools have been released in public domain on 25.05.2022 at http://nas.gov.in

National Education Policy (2020) gives paramount importance to foundational skills, such as literacy (the capacity to read) and numeracy (the capacity to carry out simple operations) for 3-8 year  children.  As  a  crucial  step  towards  strengthening  efforts  for  Foundational  Literacy  and Numeracy (FL&N), a large-scale Foundational Learning Study (FLS) was undertaken by Ministry of Education in March 2022 through the NCERT. The FLS assessed the learning outcomes of the children at the Foundational Level. The assessment was done on a sample of 86000 children.  The National and State Reports of FLS were released on 6 th September, 2022 and can be accessed at https://dsel.education.gov.in/fls\_2022. The  study  provides  critical  insights  into  attainment  of FL&N skills across the States/UTs of India. The findings of the FLS Study establish a baseline for the NIPUN Bharat mission.

A National level workshop on post-NAS interventions was organised on 28/07/2022 by Ministry  of  Education  with  representatives  of  all  States/UTs  including  States  of  Uttar  Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, State Council of Educational Research & Trainings (SECRTs), District Institute of Education & Training (DIETs) and NCERT to support State/UT governments in developing long term, mid-term and short-term interventions to improve learning levels and orient on differential planning based on NAS 21 data. Additionally, post-NAS workshops were held in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in October and September of 2022, as well as in Uttar Pradesh in January of 2023.

Under Samagra Shiksha, States/UTs are supported by providing funds in the range of ₹ 10 to 20 lakhs per district, depending on the size of the districts and states, for periodic assessments of students' academic progress from 3 rd to 12 th grades together with school evaluation. States/UTs use this  fund  for  a  variety  of  initiatives  including  State  Level  Achievement  Surveys,  School  Based Assessment, and post-NAS activities.

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