Photo for representational purpose.
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Two recent reports about school education in India present a bleak picture and show that investments made in the sector are not adequate to achieve the country’s stated objectives.
The Ministry of Education’s PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan, which surveyed 21,15,022 children of classes 3, 6, and 9 across 74,229 private and government schools in 36 states and Union Territories, reported poor outcomes across categories.
The performance of students in class 3 was better than the others. But even in the best class, only 55 per cent of the students could arrange numbers upwards to 99 and downwards again, and only 58 per cent could do addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers.
In class 6, 54 per cent of the students could not compare whole numbers and read large numbers. As many as 43 per cent did not understand the meaning of the texts they read, and more than half of them did not have a simple knowledge of mountains and rivers.
The 2025 UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals-4 report has also said that there are critical gaps in foundational literacy and numeracy, teacher training, and financing in India. It says that 21 per cent of children in the 15-17 age group are out of school, and found that 60 per cent of the children were below the benchmark in any subject. There is a rural-urban divide and a persisting gender gap. None of these findings are new, and every year, various surveys and studies point to the subpar standards of our schools.
The PARAKH report says the performance varies from state to state. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Kerala are the best performers. While Karnataka has done well to adopt modern teaching methods, there are gaps in outcomes and equity. The report says the state should impart better training to teachers, address learning gaps more effectively, and expand infrastructure and staffing.
Inadequate spending remains the biggest hurdle for education in India. The country allocates just above 4 per cent of its GDP to education, though the New Education Policy (NEP) had set a goal of 6 per cent. The absence of trained teachers in schools is a major problem. Sufficient educational infrastructure is available only in a few pockets. There are large variations in performance across the states, while poverty and backwardness stall reform in many parts of the country. The PARAKH survey had a very large base, and its findings reflect the poor state of education in the country. They reveal a distinct, worrying possibility of India continuing to be home to a massive half-literate and unskilled population – stronger interventions are imperative.