Lok Sabha Question No. 1214 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-28
Subject: PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 1214 ANSWERED ON - 28/07/2025

## PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024

## †1214. Shri Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  schools  and  students  of  Dahod  district  participated  in  PARAKH  Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 along with the improvement taken place in their quality;
- (b) the number of higher education institutions in Dahod district benefited under the PM-Usha scheme; and
- (c) whether the Government has taken any steps to strengthen the education system in Dahod district?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

## (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

- (a)      The PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 (formerly National Achievement Survey) was undertaken in December, 2024 by the National Assessment Centre, PARAKH, NCERT under the aegis of the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education to understand  the  baseline  performance  under  the  National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  2020  in development of competencies among the students at the end of the Foundational, Preparatory, and Middle stages (Grades 3, 6, and 9 respectively).

The Sarvekshan is designed as a system-level reflection on Learning Outcomes in India which underscores critical competency, skill or infrastructural gaps at various stages of schooling. It equips  policy  makers  with  robust,  district-level  data  on  learning  outcomes  and  contextual variables captured through student, teacher and school questionnaires to design evidence driven interventions for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of school education

Nationwide over 21.15 lakh students and 2.70 lakh teachers and school leaders from more than 74,000 schools across 781 districts from all States/UTs participated in the survey. From Dahod district, a total of 3,530 students and 417 teachers and school leaders from 120 unique schools participated  in  the  survey.  National,  State  and  District  level  report  cards  for  PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 are accessible at https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en.

The major highlights of Dahod's performance in the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan are given below:

- At the Foundational Stage, Dahod has performed above the State (Gujarat's) average in both Language (60%) and Mathematics (54%), which is a positive reflection of the efforts  made  under  the  foundational  learning  initiatives  such  as  NIPUN  Bharat Mission.
- At  the  Preparatory  Stage,  Dahod's  performance  remains  comparable  to  the  State average.  While  Language  scores  are  marginally  lower  (49%),  the  district  has maintained parity in The World Around Us (45%) and slightly exceeded the State in Mathematics (41%), indicating steady academic progression at the preparatory stage.
- At the Middle Stage, the district lags behind State's average performance. For instance, Dahod's scores in  Language (40%), Mathematics (28%), Science (31%) and Social Science (31%) are lower than the State's average score.

(b)    Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme aimed at funding specific State Government Universities and Colleges, so as to improve their quality by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards.

The Government has launched the third phase of RUSA in June 2023 in the form of Pradhan Mantri  Uchchatar  Shiksha  Abhiyan  (PM-USHA),  with  an  outlay  of  Rs.  12,926.10  crore, including the committed liabilities of the earlier phase of RUSA, for the period 2023-24 to 2025-26, to cater to the needs of educationally unserved/ underserved areas. Under PM-USHA, priority is given to focus districts. The focus districts are identified by the concerned States/ UTs based on various criteria, including low Gross Enrolment Ratio, Gender Parity, population proportion and enrolment proportion for females, transgenders, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, Aspirational/ Border Area/ Left Wing Extremism prone district, etc.

Under the scheme, 4 units have been approved in Dahod district of Gujarat for a total Central Share of Rs.12.74 crore under various components, as per the details given below:

|   Sl. No. | Phase   | Component                                                      | Units approved                           |   Total central share approved (Rs. in crore) |
|-----------|---------|----------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
|         1 | RUSA    | ErstwhileMDC                                                   | Government Science College, Zalod, Dahod |                                          1.34 |
|         2 | RUSA    | Upgradation of Existing Degree College to Model Degree College | Navjivan Science College, Dahod          |                                          2.4  |

|   3 | PM- USHA   | Grants to Strengthen Colleges           | Navjivan Science College, Dahod   |   3.00 |
|-----|------------|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|--------|
|   4 | PM- USHA   | Gender Inclusion and Equity Initiatives | Dahod (district as a unit)        |      6 |

(c) The  Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  is  implementing  an  integrated Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  for  School  education  -  Samagra  Shiksha  since  2018-19.  The scheme treats school education holistically, in a continuum from Balvatika to Class XII and provides support for the implementation of the RTE Act. The Scheme has been aligned with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and aims to ensure that all children  have  access  to  quality  education  with  an  equitable  and  inclusive  classroom environment which should take care of their diverse background, multilingual needs, different academic abilities and make them active participants in the learning process.

As per norms of the Samagra Shiksha, the annual plans are prepared by the States and UTs as per their requirements/ priority and the same are then appraised and approved by the Project Approval Board (PAB) in the Department of School Education & Literacy in consultation with the States and UTs as per the programmatic and financial norms of the scheme and physical and financial progress of the State for the interventions approved earlier. During 2025-26, a total outlay of Rs. 2747.95 crore has been approved under Samagra Shiksha for strengthening the education system in all districts of Gujarat, including Dahod.

Moreover, funds under Samagra Shiksha are provided to support a comprehensive initiative called  PM  eVidya,  which  is  implemented  by  NCERT  and  unifies  all  efforts  related  to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country. The components of these initiatives are available to all the students across all the States/UTs, including Gujarat, free of cost. States/UTs collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. NCERT also provides regular  guidance/  feedback  to  States/UTs  on  quality  of  these  initiatives.  One  of  the  key components of PM eVidya which enhances digital literacy includes broadcasting of 200 DTH TV Channels and 400 Radio channels to enable all States/UTs including Gujarat to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages including for classes 1-12. The channels have been allocated to the States/UTs and Autonomous Bodies under an MoU with NCERT and are operational.

Besides the above, Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) Scheme is one of the  foremost  rights  based  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme implemented  by  the Department of School Education and Literacy in partnership with the States and UTs for providing hot cooked and nutritious meal to all children studying in Balvatika and classes I to VIII of Government and Government-aided schools.  The Scheme covers about 11 crore children in more than 10.35 lakh schools in all the States/UTs. A total of 3.39 lakh students are covered in Dahod district under this scheme.

Additionally,  the  State  Government  of  Gujarat  has  taken  various  steps  to  enhance  the educational outcomes in Dahod district, which, inter alia, include monitoring of attendance of teachers and students through Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) to ensure regular attendance of students, recruitment of teachers under the 'Gyan Sahayak Yojna' to address the shortage of teachers,  trainings  for  in-service,  newly  appointed  and  head  teachers  organized  by  Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT), preparation of a competency-based question  bank-also  including  Higher  Order  Thinking  Skill  (HOTS)  questions-and  its placement  on  the  GCERT  website  to  ensure  wider  access  for  teachers,  training  sessions conducted  by  experts  through  Bhaskaracharya  Institute  for  Space  Applications  and  GeoInformatics (BISAG) broadcast, and provision of both physical and digital facilities under the School of Excellence (SoE) initiative .

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