ABSTRACT
Youth constitutes a vital social capital for economic growth anywhere in the world. India, the country with the largest youth population, has an enviable potential for harnessing this demographic dividend to benefit global fortunes. But for India, given its scale and diversity of contexts and systems, this demographic dividend can only be realised potentially if we provide quality education and twenty-first-century skills at the school level itself to enable learners to meet the requirements of the ever-dynamic world of work. To realise this, reforming the assessment of learning in the school system, with seamless linkages with higher education, becomes imperative for education to have a transformative impact on society.
Towards this requirement, the National Achievement Survey (NAS) – a flagship research programme of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India – has evolved as a critical tool for assessing students’ learning outcomes across varied contexts and systems. The NAS, first introduced by the MoE in collaboration with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in 2001, has evolved over time in its scope and coverage with a major shift in the year 2017, when the survey first made available the district-level estimates for learning levels, which hitherto was available only for state/union territory.
This chapter is based on the analysis of secondary data and findings available in the forms of national-, state-, and district-level reports. It also considers the technical reports and assessment frameworks for the national assessment exercises – NAS 2017 and NAS 2021 – conducted on a representative sample of students studying in classes III, V, and VIII, providing district-=level estimates of learning in grade-specific subjects. NAS 2021 included class X also in the study but this chapter, with a focus on elementary education, has considered only classes III, V, and VIII. The chapter also takes into accounts national policy documents and other national initiatives in the area of education and skill development.
This study provides reflections on the NAS as a tool for assessing the quality of learning in the Indian school education system vis-à-vis its potential use post–National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 scenario in the country.
Looking ahead, NAS is poised to play an even more significant role in shaping educational policies and practices in India, aligning with the objectives outlined in NEP 2020. Emphasising the need for continued refinement and utilisation of NAS data, this chapter advocates for leveraging NAS insights to drive transformative changes in the pedagogic and assessment approaches in Indian education landscape.
