National Achievement Survey (NAS), 2021

Highlights of the report-

• It assesses the health of the school education system in the country by conducting a comprehensive evaluation survey of children’s learning competencies at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle period of three years.
• The last NAS was held in 2017.
• The NAS 2021 was held on November 12, 2021, at the all-India level and covered government schools; government-aided schools; and private unaided schools and about 34 lakh students of 1.18 lakh schools in 720 districts from both rural and urban areas participated.
• The achievement tests along with the questionnaires, i.e., pupil questionnaire, teacher questionnaire and school questionnaire were developed and translated into 22 different languages by NCERT.
• The survey was managed through the technology platform designed and developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• To capture student attainment of learning outcomes at the end of Classes III, V, VIII and X, an OMR based achievement test comprising of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) was conducted. 
• The report is based on the performance in all subjects through disaggregation by gender (female, male), Area (Rural and Urban), Management of schools (Government, Government aided and Private unaided) and Social Groups (SC, ST, OBC and General).
• The objective of NAS 2021 is to evaluate children’s progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the efficiency of the education system, so as to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels.