National Achievement Survey (NAS) Report 2021

Thiruvarur: National Achievement Survey Report 2021. National Achievement Survey highlights needs to address pandemic-induced learning gaps among primary students.

Tamil Nadu school students’ learning outcome below national average Central Government’s NAS Report 2021. Among the 22 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu, Theni, Pudukottai, Tiruvarur and Karur districts were at the bottom of the learning achievement table.

The survey indicated that 77% of Class VIII students did not have a digital device at home. Similarly, 41% of Class III students, 39% of Class V students and 26% of Class X students surveyed also did not have access to digital devices.

School Education Department | Tiruvarur District, Government of Tamil Nadu

• The state’s children stood below the national average when it comes to learning outcomes and the teachers complained that they felt overburdened by work.
• Students between Classes VIII and X in Tamil Nadu lacked adequate problem-solving skills using rational numbers, locating important historical sites and places on maps, identifying construction models using materials from their surroundings and explaining the process of making a law.
• This was revealed in the National Achievement Survey 2021. In fact, students in Tamil Nadu were found lagging behind the national average when it comes to overall learning outcomes.
• In English, apart from Class X students, all others were found lacking in all other subjects.
• Only 2 per cent of students of Class X were proficient in Science and only 8 per cent had acquired intended learning outcomes in Maths and Science, the survey revealed.
• The rest of the students stood at basic and below basic levels.
• In fact, about 26-77 per cent of the students studying in Classes III, V, VIII and X said that they did not have proper devices to study.
• One in three students complained that they faced obstacles in learning during the pandemic.The results of the survey are worrisome and a comparison between 2017 and 2021 shows that children have fared poorly now than in 2017. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is showing on the performance of the students, it seems.
• The NAS survey results show that the Tamil Nadu government has not focused on outcome-based learning and the pandemic has affected the whole education system in the state. There was no proper monitoring and children were mostly learning painting, drawing and singing rather than Science and Maths. There has to be learning with systematic inputs covering all subjects and the lack of such learning is being seen in the survey.
• The teachers must be monitored properly and there should be fixed responsibilities on the learning outcome of children. The higher officials of the education department must pay regular visits to schools and conduct surprise inspections on the skills of the students, otherwise, the state will go from bad to worse.

Going forward, the focus of the government should be on addressing these learning gaps, especially among primary students during the pandemic. Schemes such as Illam Thedi Kalvi and Ennum Ezhuthum, which will focus on building foundational literacy and skills should effectively tackle this,” said P.K. Ilamaran, president, Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Association.

National Achievement Survey(NAS)-2021 Report Card

NCERT, under the aegis of Ministry of Education, conducted the National Achievement Survey (NAS) throughout the country on November 13, 2021, for Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10 in government, government-aided schools, private recognized and central government schools. The survey tools used multiple test booklets with 50 questions in Classes 3 and 5, 60 questions in Class 8, 70 questions in Class 10 in Mathematics, Language, Sciences, Environmental Studies and Social Sciences. The competency-based test questions reflect the learning outcomes developed by NCERT which were recently incorporated in the RTE Act by the Government of India. Along with the test items, questionnaires about students, teachers and schools were also used. The learning levels of 3.4 million students from 1,18,274 schools across 720 Districts in all 36 States/UTs were assessed. The findings of the survey help guide the education policy, planning and implementation at National, State, District and classroom levels to improve the learning levels of children and bring about qualitative improvements.

Check out the complete Report for NAS 2021.