Manish Sisodia urges Dharmendra Pradhan to postpone National Achievement Survey

NEW DELHI: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has written to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, urging him to postpone the National Achievement Survey (NAS) scheduled on Friday in schools across the country to assess learning levels.

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Sisodia, who is also Delhi's Education Minister, said the data collected in the survey will not be "reliable" as schools have not completely opened after a prolonged closure due to COVID-19, and the exercise will be a "wastage" of time and money. "Students have gradually started coming to schools after one and a half year. I believe at this time we should focus on social, mental and emotional well being of students. A big number of students have not returned to schools, there should be an effort to bring them back rather than formulating a policy on basis of a survey done when schools are half open," Sisodia said in the letter.

"I humbly request you that the survey should be stopped for now and conducted later at a time when situation turns normal. The purpose of the survey will be served then only and data will be reliable. To conduct the survey at this time will be wastage of time and money and if a policy is formulated on basis of this survey, the results can be fatal," he added.

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According to Ministry of Education (MoE) officials, over 38 lakh students from 1.23 lakh schools in 733 districts across the country will participate in the survey on Friday.

The survey, which assesses competencies developed by students at the grade levels of third, fifth, and eighth, is conducted every three years. It was last conducted in 2017 and was scheduled to take place in 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 situation, it was postponed until this year.

While instrument development, testing, finalisation of test items, sampling of schools, etc. have been done by the NCERT, the actual administration of the test in the sampled schools will be done by the CBSE in collaboration with the respective states and union territories.

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The survey will cover government, government-aided and private schools, and will help to assess learning interruptions and new learnings during the pandemic and to take remedial measures.