Lok Sabha Question No. 445 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-05
Subject: Learning Performance of Children in Rural Areas
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Anto  Antony, Adoor Prakash

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 445 ANSWERED ON - 05/02/2024

## Learning Performance of Children in Rural Areas

## 445.  SHRI ANTO ANTONY:

## ADV. ADOOR PRAKASH:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  whether the Government is aware that the learning outcome report published by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 reveals that learning performance of children in the rural areas of the country is very poor;

(b)  if so, the details thereof and the reasons for poor performance;

(c)  whether the Government has any plan to improve learning outcomes among school going children, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;

- (d)    whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  study  to  determine  the  learning  outcomes  among primary school students, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and

(e)    the  budgetary expenditure for primary education and foundational learning during the last three years, State-wise?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  &  (b):  The  Annual  Status  of  Education  Report  (ASER)  is  released  by  a  non-governmental organization.

(c): The  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  of  Samagra  Shiksha  has  been  aligned  with  the recommendations of National Education Policy, 2020. In pursuance of the goals and objectives of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), several initiatives have been launched in School Education  under  Samagra  Shiksha  viz.  National  Initiative  for  Proficiency  in  Reading  with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) for ensuring foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3; Vidya-Pravesh-Guidelines for Three-month Play-based School Preparation Module;  Indian  Sign  Language  as  a  Subject  at  secondary  level  by  National  Institute  of  Open Schooling; National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement

(NISHTHA) extended to  cover  teachers  at  all  levels  of  schooling  including  training  of  master trainers  for  ECCE; Vidya Sameeksha Kendra (VSK) launched on 06.09.2020. So far, 12 States namely -Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra,  Nagaland,  Punjab,  Odisha,  Uttarakhand  and  Uttar  Pradesh  -  have  set  up  Vidya Samiksha  Kendra;  ICT  and  Digital  initiatives  component  of  centrally  sponsored  scheme  of Samagra  Shiksha  covers  Government  and  Aided  schools  having  classes  VI  to  XII.  Under  this component  financial  assistance  is  provided  for  establishing  ICT  Lab  and  Smart  Classrooms  in schools; National Digital Educational Architecture (NDEAR) has 1500+ Micro courses, 5 billion+ Learning sessions, 12 billion+ QR codes, 20K+ ecosystem participants, 15K+ Micro improvements ongoing across the various linked building blocks.

(d): 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.  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.

Recently,  the  National  Assessment  Centre  -Performance  Assessment,  Review,  and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) at NCERT, a standard-setting body under Ministry of Education has conducted State Educational Achievement Survey (SEAS)- 23 on 03.11.2023.  The  primary  objective  of  this  survey  is  to  evaluate  the  learning  competencies  of students in Foundational Literacy, Foundational Numeracy, Language and Mathematics at the end of  each  educational  stage  i.e.  foundational,  preparatory,  and  middle.  One  of  the  noteworthy features of SEAS-23 is the expansion of the sample size of students to understand the learning gaps at the block level, a strategic shift from district.

The  Foundational Learning  Study  (FLS),  an  assessment  &  benchmarking  study  for foundational learning was administered in March, 2022 by NCERT at the National level. FLS was conducted in 20 different languages. Approximately 86,000 grade 3 students from 10,000 schools were covered. As an important literacy skill, FLS 2022 assessed 'Reading with understanding and numeracy'  skill  of  class  3  students.  Pertaining  to  the  linguistics  differences  in  languages, benchmarks have been calculated distinctly for each of the 20 languages that aim to interpret the performance of the students in reading with understanding/comprehension in each of them. The reports are available at https://dsel.education.gov.in/fls\_2022 .

(e): The  Samagra  Shiksha  scheme  envisages  the  'school'  as  a  continuum  from  Pre-school, Primary,  Upper  Primary,  Secondary  to  Senior  Secondary  levels.  Under  Samagra  Shiksha,  the Central Government releases funds to States/UTs in lump sum and intervention-wise releases are not made under Samagra Shiksha. State/UT-wise details of the Central share released under the Samagra  Shiksha  to  all  States/UTs  for  the  years  2020-21,  2021-22  and  2022-23  is  given  at Annexure-I.

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ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA  UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 445 ANSWER ON 05.02.2024 ASKED BY SHRI ANTO ANTONY AND ADV. ADOOR  PRAKASH,  HON'BLE  MEMBER  OF  PARLIAMENT  REGARDING  'LEARNING PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN IN RURAL AREAS'

State/UT-wise release in Samagra Shiksha from 2020-21 to 2022-23

(Rs in lakhs)

| Sl.No.   | Name of the State           |          2020-21 |          2021-22 |          2022-23 |
|----------|-----------------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
| 1        | A &NIslands                 |   4037.43        |   3152.32        |   5651.44        |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh              |  86975.1         |  68301.4         | 150359           |
| 3        | Arunachal Pradesh           |  33964.5         |  27996.2         |  25229.5         |
| 4        | Assam                       | 159429           | 156156           | 208086           |
| 5        | Bihar                       | 282823           | 340608           | 355459           |
| 6        | Chandigarh                  |   7115.42        |  10804.1         |  10979.2         |
| 7        | Chhattisgarh                |  35068.4         |  33236.8         |  82800           |
| 8        | Dadra &N. Haveli Daman& Diu |   3493.77        |   2092.45        |   6466.66        |
| 9        | Delhi                       |  14926.4         |  14588           |  22193.9         |
| 10       | Goa                         |   1788.38        |   1102.19        |   2985.77        |
| 11       | Gujarat                     |  97632.8         |  89375.7         | 132125           |
| 12       | Haryana                     |  74570.7         |  51709.2         |  67021.3         |
| 13       | Himachal Pradesh            |  49230.5         |  31910           |  55160.1         |
| 14       | Jammu &Kashmir              |  38557.4         |  87398.8         |  36497.2         |
| 15       | Jharkhand                   |  86561.2         |  85897.1         | 115452           |
| 16       | Karnataka                   |  61010           |  47451.6         |  86152.5         |
| 17       | Kerala                      |  23838.6         |  22512.8         |  17816           |
| 18       | Ladakh                      |   5806.39        |   5717.55        |   1489.36        |
| 19       | Lakshadweep                 |    254.63        |    216.15        |    432.99        |
| 20       | Madhya Pradesh              | 246219           | 229280           | 193929           |
| 21       | Maharashtra                 |  63559.6         |  69302.9         |  90000           |
| 22       | Manipur                     |  32364.8         |  18250.2         |  40475.7         |
| 23       | Meghalaya                   |  28355.7         |  27171.4         |  37515.3         |
| 24       | Mizoram                     |  18855           |  17968.1         |  14268.1         |
| 25       | Nagaland                    |  21347.1         |  13734.2         |  28104.5         |
| 26       | Odisha                      | 130146           | 123807           | 183667           |
| 27       | Puducherry                  |    972.44        |   1397.54        |   1527.52        |
| 28       | Punjab                      |  53143.1         |  50127           |  60504.9         |
| 29       | Rajasthan                   | 225944           | 240582           | 213861           |
| 30       | Sikkim                      |   6451.72        |  10012.5         |  10719           |
| 31       | Tamil Nadu                  | 162154           | 159882           | 210723           |
| 32       | Telangana                   |  34807.4         |  55327.9         | 114251           |
| 33       | Tripura                     |  40371.2         |  22692.8         |  28672.5         |
| 34       | Uttar Pradesh               | 457186           | 204497           | 381975           |
| 35       | Uttarakhand                 |  54149.3         |  32083.6         |  70438.9         |
| 36       | West Bengal                 | 132743           | 130974           | 152204           |
|          | Total                       |      2.77585e+06 |      2.48732e+06 |      3.21519e+06 |