According to the survey, 43% of India’s schoolchildren in Class 6 are unable to understand the main themes in books.
The Performance Assessment
, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) Rashtriya Sarvekshan was carried out on December 4, 2024. It assessed 21,15,022 students in Grades 3, 6, and 9 from both government and private schools in 74,229 schools across 36 states and Union Territories (UTs).
As per the survey, 1,15,022 students from three grades were examined, with 2,70,424 teachers and school leaders responding via questionnaires.
In Class 3, only 55% of students are able to arrange numbers up to 99 in ascending or descending order, while 58% can do addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers. It also revealed that 53% of students in Class 6 know addition and multiplication tables up to 10 and can understand and visualise arithmetic operations.
Along with Language and Mathematics, Class 6 introduced a new topic called ‘The World Around Us’, which covers the environment and society. Students scored the lowest in Mathematics (46%), while Language averaged 57% and The World Around Us scored 49% nationally.
The survey highlights significant learning gaps, with less than 50% of students answering correctly in certain areas, indicating a need for focused interventions, according to MoE officials.
“These learning gaps highlight the need for focused interventions to strengthen students’ skills, refine instructional strategies, and provide additional learning support. Addressing these areas effectively will help improve overall student learning outcomes in the nation,” an official was quoted as saying by The ET Education.
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Central government schools recorded the lowest performance in Mathematics for Class 3, while government-aided and state government schools showed weaker performance in Class 6, especially in Mathematics.
A notable rural-urban divide was observed, with Class 3 students in rural areas performing better in both Mathematics and Language. In contrast, urban children in grades 6 and 9 outperformed their rural counterparts in all subjects.
School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar emphasised the need for systemic action, stating that a comprehensive multi-level strategy will be implemented to translate the survey findings into meaningful actions.
“This includes a phased dissemination of data through workshops at the national, regional, state, and district levels. These workshops will focus not only on understanding the survey results but also on preparing district-specific roadmaps, where roles and responsibilities are clearly defined,” he added.
Every three years, the NAS analyses the competencies developed by third, fifth, and eighth grade students. The last NAS took place in 2021.
