Parliament Question: Drop in students reading and learning abilities

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-3726 ANSWERED ON – 25/03/2026 Drop in students reading and learning abilities 3726 Shri Ryaga Krishnaiah: Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has funded/sponsored any survey to gather data on children's reading, learning and arithmetic abilities; (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; (c) whether Government has assessed the differences in private and Government schools pertaining to this issue; and (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (d): The Government of India undertakes large-scale assessments to measure learning outcomes in schools across the country from time to time. In this regard, the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 (formerly National Achievement Survey) was conducted by the National Assessment Centre-PARAKH, NCERT under the aegis of the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education to measure the baseline performance under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in development of competencies among students at the end of the Foundational, Preparatory and Middle Stages (Grades 3, 6 and 9 respectively) of schooling. Nationwide over 21.15 lakh students and 2.70 lakh teachers from more than 74,000 schools, including government, government aided and private schools, across 781 districts from all States/UTs participated in the assessment. National, State and District level report cards for PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 providing insights on variation in learning outcomes, achievement of stage-specific competencies and suggested interventions to improve low-performing competencies, are available athttps://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en, a dedicated dashboard designed to disseminate the findings of the assessment. Findings from the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 inter alia reveal that State Government schools outperform private schools at the foundational stage, while Central Government schools achieved the highest scores among all school management types, including private, at the preparatory and middle stages.