NITI Aayog’s national education report released Thursday has flagged a deepening learning crisis among the 24.69 crore school students across the country. ASER 2024 data shows that only 27.1% of Grade 3 students could read a Grade 2-level text and just 30.7% of Grade 5 students could solve a basic division problem. The report also found that reading proficiency among Grade 8 students declined nationally from 74.7% in 2014 to 71.1% in 2024, with government schools recording a sharper fall in reading comprehension from 71.5% to 67.5% over a decade.
The report, School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement, is based on data from The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+ 2024-25), the National Achievement Survey (NAS), Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) and Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) to assess learning trends, school infrastructure and education outcomes across the country. The UDISE+ provides the primary statistical base, covering school-level data on enrolment, infrastructure, teachers, and management. Learning outcomes have been studied using PARAKH and NAS, while insights from ASER help situate learning levels within broader social and household contexts.
NAS 2021 findings cited in the report showed several major states recorded sharp declines in Grade 8 learning outcomes between 2017 and 2021 across language, mathematics, science and social science. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Kerala, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka were among the states flagged for significant declines. Punjab emerged as one of the strongest-performing states in the NAS analysis, recording ‘significant gains across subjects’.
The report said mathematics and higher-order reasoning remained among the weakest areas nationally. NAS and PARAKH 2024 findings analysed in the report showed that only 29% of Grade 6 students could compare fractions, 38% could perform unit conversions and 53% could apply four basic operations on whole numbers to solve daily life problems.
NAS data also showed a decline in average Grade 3 scores nationally between 2017 and 2021. Language scores fell from 336 to 323, mathematics from 321 to 306 and environmental studies from 321 to 307.
Stagnant Arithmetic
ASER 2024 findings, meanwhile, showed that foundational reading and arithmetic skills remain uneven despite signs of post-pandemic recovery. Nationally, the share of Grade 3 students able to read a Grade 2-level text rose from 20.5% in 2022 to 27.1% in 2024 after dropping sharply during the pandemic years.
The data also showed reading skills at the upper primary level have weakened over the decade. Nationally, Grade 8 reading proficiency fell from 74.7% in 2014 to 71.1% in 2024. Government schools recorded a sharper decline from 71.5% to 67.5%, while private schools declined from a peak of 82.9% in 2018 to 80% in 2024.
In arithmetic, ASER data showed that only 33.7% of Grade 3 students nationally could solve a basic subtraction problem in 2024, while only 30.7% of Grade 5 students could solve a division problem. Among Grade 8 students, arithmetic performance remained largely stagnant over the decade, improving only marginally from 44.2% in 2014 to 45.8% in 2024.
The study also noted that girls frequently perform as well as or better than boys in language competencies during early stages, but inequalities persist in digital access and learning environments. The report stated that girls’ enrollment in primary schools declined from 107.38% in 2014-15 to 92.3% in 2024-25, citing “demographic changes, including falling fertility rates and shrinking cohorts of children entering primary school”.
From Access to Quality
In the report, the think-tank has pitched 13 recommendations to improve quality of schools. The first five academic recommendations focus on transforming pedagogy, assessment, and foundational learning, emphasising student wellbeing, re-imagining skill integration, strengthening early childhood care and integrating AI for pedagogical innovation. The rest of the eight systemic recommendations include reforming school structure through composite schools and evidence-based rationalisation, strengthening school infrastructure, undertaking governance reform and strengthening school management committees.
Calling for a shift in classroom teaching,it said the current phase of reform must move “from expanding access to strengthening learning quality”. It recommended moving away from rote learning and textbook completion towards “foundational mastery” and level-based instruction aligned to actual student learning levels. The report called for targeted foundational literacy and numeracy interventions, competency-based assessments, remedial teaching programmes and stronger teacher mentoring systems, particularly in low-performing districts and disadvantaged regions.
The study also highlighted major disparities in school retention across states. Secondary-level dropout rates in 2024-25 were highest in West Bengal at 20%, followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka at 18.3% each, Assam at 17.5%, Meghalaya at 17.4% and Gujarat at 16.9%.
India’s school system currently comprises 14.71 lakh schools. Of these, nearly 7.3 lakh are primary schools, but the number drops sharply at secondary and higher secondary schools, contributing to transition-stage dropouts after Grades 5, 8 and 10. Only around 5% of schools across India offer continuous schooling from Classes 1 to 12.