Question : Standard of Education in Schools

(a) whether the learning outcome of school children is not satisfactory and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has conducted any study to evaluate the quality and standard of education being imparted in schools and if so, the details and the outcome thereof;

(c) whether the teachers have lack of modern teaching equipment/methodology and if so, the details thereof and the efforts being taken by the Government in this regard; and

(d) the corrective steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve the standard and quality of education in schools?

MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)


(a) to (d) : The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts National Achievement Surveys (NAS) at periodic intervals to assess the learning levels of children in classes III, V and VIII. Three rounds of NAS have been conducted so far. These reveal that the learning outcomes have improved in various subjects.

Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme, a total of 19.78 lakh teacher posts have been sanctioned, against which 15.59 lakh teacher posts have been filled up by States/UTs, upto 31.03.2015 to improve pupil teacher ratios, imparting of regular annual-in-service teacher training to all teachers to update their skills & knowledge, distribution of free textbooks to children and providing on-site academic support to teachers through Block Resource Centres and Cluster Resource Centres. States/UTs have also been assisted to conduct comprehensive external student assessment surveys to assess gaps in student learning, in order to undertake corrective action. Under Computer Aided Learning (CAL) component of SSA, States/UTs have been supported financially to promote e-learning of Science and Mathematics at Upper Primary level.


To ensure quality outcomes in government schools, the Central government through SSA has supported States/UTs on early grade reading, writing & comprehension, and early mathematics programmes through a sub-programme namely ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’, and at upper primary level support for Mathematics and Science teaching learning in 2014-15.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on 09.07.2015, inter alia, as sub-components of SSA and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), to motivate and engage children of the age group from 6-18 years in Science, Mathematics and Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities and processes.

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