A worrying fall in state of school education

A new government survey released last week has confirmed what other reports have shown about the state of school education, which has been badly hit by the Covid pandemic. The impact on education has been obvious to everyone, but the survey has given quantified information and details about the nature and extent of the impact. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021, the first such exercise conducted since 2017, was done on a large scale, covering about 34 lakh students of more than one lakh schools in 720 districts. It was held in November 2021. It showed a sharp decline in the performance of students in all subjects during the pandemic years. Even states that have traditionally done well have suffered during the pandemic. The national average percentage, which represents scores in a range of subjects, was 59% for Class 3 and 49% in Class 5. It further dropped to 41.9% in Class 8 and 37.8% in Class 10. In all subjects, average scores were lower than in 2017.

The average performance of schools in rural areas was significantly below those in urban areas in the same regions, and the performance of students from SC, ST and OBC categories was much lower than that of students from the general category. It is to be noted that the average performance declined as students went up the grades. About 25% of the students said they did not have access to digital devices and so online education was lost on them. Nearly 40% said they had problems studying at home. A quarter did not have parental support. One apparent contradictory finding was that about 97% of the teachers had job satisfaction, while the students’ performance was poor.

The government has said that the NAS data "will help states in taking remedial measures, both short-term and long-term". The uneven performance of students across classes and social groups makes it difficult to handle the deficiencies with the same methods and policies. Regions, schools and classes may need specific policies suited to their needs and teachers should have a crucial role in formulating and implementing them. However, the budgetary allocation for teachers’ training has been reduced this year. The outlay for midday meals scheme has also been cut by 10%. The scheme has an important role in attracting students to schools. The survey covered only students who continued to be on the rolls during the pandemic. There are large numbers of them who dropped out during that period. Learning loss in higher classes may lead to more dropouts. While efforts should be made to improve the school experience and outcomes, those who left schools should be brought back too.