Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The officers incharge appointed by Rajya Shiksha Kendra (RSK) have stated in a report to RSK director Harjinder Singh that schools in Madhya Pradesh are inadequately prepared for the upcoming National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2024.
Scheduled for 4 December, this crucial survey is conducted every four years by the Union Ministry of Education to assess the learning achievements of students in Class 3, 5, 8, and 10 in government, private and central schools. The officials incharge tasked with monitoring the ground reality of schools in the NAS have highlighted alarming gaps in preparedness after their visited districts to assess the academic capabilities of students .
For instance, private school students in some districts were found unfamiliar with filling Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets, a basic requirement for the survey. In contrast, government school students demonstrated better understanding of the survey’s formalities. The report revealed that though RSK has been issuing weekly quiz papers and practice materials to government schools, many institutions failed to implement them effectively.
In several schools, students were unable to read and write. The students in some districts were unable to solve the mathematics problems. An RSK official told Free Press that state would perform poorly in the survey due to the lack of preparedness among students in government and private schools. He further said that the schools were not following the instructions given to them by RSK.
The Survey
National Achievement Survey is a critical tool for evaluating the effectiveness of school education at a system-wide level. It correlates student performance with contextual factors and provides insights for policy-making and remedial interventions. NAS 2021, for instance, focused on competency-based assessment in language, mathematics, science and social science for various classes.
