Explained: How NAS survey assesses what school students have learnt; what it has found

News: A nationwide survey carried out by the Union Ministry of Education has found that between 2017 and 2021, the literacy and numeracy skills of school students in India worsened considerably across subjects and grades.

The outcomes of the National Achievement Survey (NAS), are supposed to guide interventions by authorities across the country to bridge the learning gaps among students enrolled in Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10.

What is the NAS and its objective?

Objective: to provide a snapshot of learning outcomes in key subjects — essentially “what students know and can do” — at the end of Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10. These classes are generally seen to mark important stages in the development of a child’s cognitive abilities.

The first edition of NAS was carried out in 2001.

In the beginning, the survey was supposed to be an independent project of the NCERT, but it was soon brought under the ambit of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which has now been subsumed into the overarching Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

• Read here

What is the current structure of the survey?

In 2017-18, the NAS was redesigned.

– For the first time, students of all four grades were covered on the same day.

– Also, instead of states, districts were made units of reporting, leading to a much bigger sample size.

What exactly does the NAS assess?

Until 2015-16, the survey assessed the competency of students based on the core curriculum followed by states and UTs.

In 2017-18, the focus moved to mapping the progress of learning outcomes as listed under the Right to Education Rules as amended in 2017.

Questions asked by the NAS are framed to assess whether students can read, and carry out simple mathematical operations that are required in daily life.

– The levels of difficulty and complexity of the questions vary from one grade to another.

In the higher classes, the survey also assesses the knowledge acquired by students in areas related to the Constitution of India.

Language, mathematics and environmental science are assessed in Classes 3 and 5; language, maths, science and social science in Class 8; and maths, social science, science and English are assessed for students in Class 10.

Coverage: The survey covers schools run by the central and state/UT governments, government-aided schools, and private unaided schools.

What are the findings of the latest NAS survey?

• Read here

What are the implications of the findings?

The NAS findings highlight the need for urgent interventions to improve foundational learning levels.

Source: This post is based on the article “Explained: How NAS survey assesses what school students have learnt; what it has found” published in The Indian Express on 4th June 22.