Inequalities in School Education

The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 of the Ministry of Education brings out interesting insights on the state of school education in India. The survey stands out as it is one of the most extensive and comprehensive surveys conducted so far. More importantly, the NAS 2021 also looks at important pedagogy-related social and economic issues generally ignored in most other surveys. The survey covers 34 lakh students in 1.18 lakh schools with 5.26 lakh teachers, using 2 lakh field investigators and 1.24 lakh observers in 720 districts spread across all states and union territories. It also delves deep into pedo-geological procedures and learning outcomes.

To assess the learning achievements of students, the survey evaluates the competency of students in different subjects. While the evaluations are focused on language, mathematics, and environmental studies for Classes 3 and 5, it looks at language, mathematics, science, and social science competencies of both Classes 8 and 10 students and also the English language skills of Class 10 students. The NAS is different from most other surveys as it focuses on measuring the student’s ability or competence to analyse, reason, and communicate ideas rather than on testing their rote memorisation abilities. The idea is to identify the gaps in learning outcomes and facilitate outcome-based interventions. Hence, the NAS generates a national report, 37 state and union territory reports, and 720 district reports.