On November 3, nearly 11 million schoolchildren from Classes III, VI and IX are expected to sit a new national-level competency test in mathematics and a language of their choice.
Parakh, an organisation established by the central government to develop norms to assess schoolchildren’s learning levels, will hold its first State Educational Achievement Survey (SEAS). It will later issue block-level, district-level, state-level and national-level report cards.
Children from select government, government-aided and private schools can take the test.
Parakh CEO Indrani Bhaduri said the SEAS test, also called Parakh, would ask multiple-choice questions in 19 languages, including English. The children can take the test in the language in which they have been taught.
“The SEAS test has been confined to mathematics and language to assess the students’ basic competencies,” Bhaduri said.
“Once the learning gaps are identified, the respective state will develop textbooks, additional learning materials and any further support to bridge the gaps. Parakh will collaborate with each state to help their children improve.”
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts the National Achievement Survey (NAS) for Classes III, V, VIII and X every three years. It involves a language of their choice, mathematics, environmental science and social science. The last NAS was held in 2021, with 3.4 million children taking it.
The NAS releases district-level, state-level and national-level report cards. However, the SEAS test will also release a report card for each block to help the block education officials plan and make interventions.
The number of schools chosen for the SEAS test will vary from block to block. All the children from Classes III, VI and IX from the selected schools can take the test.
While children from about 1 lakh schools appear in the NAS, about 3 lakh schools will participate in the SEAS.
PISA cloud
India is unlikely to participate in the 2025 edition of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a globally acclaimed competency test for 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading and science, held every three years.
The education ministry had in 2019 decided to participate in the 2021 PISA, which was deferred to 2022. However, because of the learning gap caused by the Covid-induced school closures, the government decided in September 2021 to postpone India’s participation in the PISA to 2025.
However, with the learning gap continuing to remain a challenge, as suggested by internal estimates, the Centre appears reluctant to take part in the test in 2025, a government official said.
The education ministry believes that the NAS provides a good enough overall picture of schoolchildren’s performance.
India participated in the PISA only in 2009, selecting a group of students from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh to represent the country. India ended up 73rd among 74 countries, finishing only above Kyrgyzstan.
A Delhi University teacher said that Indian schoolchildren, especially those from government schools, faced a disadvantage in the PISA because they were less conversant with the concepts employed in the test compared with their peers from developed nations.
Last updated on 30 Oct 2023
