NAS 2021: Over 38 lakh students from 733 districts to participate in survey

NEW DELHI: Over 38 lakh students from 1.23 lakh schools in 733 districts across the country will participate in the National Achievement Survey (NAS) on Friday, according to Ministry of Education (MoE) officials.

The survey, which assesses the competencies developed by the students at the grade levels of third, fifth, and eighth, is conducted every three years. The survey 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.

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While the instrument development, testing, finalisation of test items, sampling of schools, etc. have been done by 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.

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

"It is expected that nearly 1.23 lakh schools and 38 lakh students in 733 districts across 36 states and UTs will be covered in the survey. NAS will be conducted in Language, Mathematics and EVS for classes 3 and 5; Language, Mathematics, Science & Social Science for class 8; and Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and English for class 10," a senior official of the ministry said.

"The test would be conducted in 22 mediums of instruction covering Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Mizo, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Garo, Khasi, Konkani, Nepali, Bhutia, and Lepcha," the official added.

Over 1.8 lakh field investigators, 1.23 lakh observers, 733 district level coordinators and district nodal officers separately and 36 state nodal officers in each state and UT have been appointed for smooth and fair conduct of the survey.

The official said, "1,500 board representatives have been appointed in the districts for monitoring overall functioning and ensuring fair conduct of the survey. All the personnel have been provided extensive training regarding their roles and responsibilities."

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The Cental Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has constituted a National Steering Committee for the conduct of NAS.

"A portal has been launched to enable coordination with various key functionaries for smooth conduct of the survey. State and district report cards for both elementary and secondary levels will be released and placed in the public domain," the official added.