Amid AAP’s ‘govt schools lagging behind’ concern and ‘Delhi Model’ push, Punjab excels in NAS 2021

The national-level large-scale assessment survey was conducted on November 12 last year, and the students of class 3, 5, 8 and 10 were tested in various subjects to assess their learning achievement and to assess impact of pandemic on academics.

Interestingly, Punjab has not only scored more than the national average in all the categories, but has also topped in the average score in 10 of the 14 categories, leaving behind other states including Delhi.

Punjab’s excellent performance in the country’s largest learning outcome levels survey conducted by the ministry, comes amid the push for ‘Delhi model of education’ in the state by the AAP government led by CM Bhagwant Mann, who wants to bring an ‘education revolution’ in Punjab like his counterpart Arvind Kejriwal ‘did in Delhi’. Mann said that government schools of Punjab have been ‘lagging behind’ and need a complete overhaul.

According to Mann, the previous SAD-BJP and Congress governments did not do enough for the education sector and have been responsible for the pathetic state of government schools in Punjab.

Recently, during an interaction with school principals from across the state held in Ludhiana, Mann said that soon Punjab will be implementing Delhi’s model of education in Punjab with features such as sending teachers abroad for training. Launching a portal to record suggestions from teachers on how to improve schools in Punjab he said that the AAP government will ‘restore faith of common people in the government system of education’.

“Merely painting walls and buildings with colors does not make a ‘smart school’. Delhi government has worked on building the confidence among its students and likewise Punjab too will bring children out from the ‘rat race of scoring high percentages’ and ‘focus on practical education that will help them in getting successful in life. I have no doubt about the ability of our principals and teachers but they have never been provided the infrastructure and ambience which is required to make our education system world-class. People have lost faith in the government system,” Mann had said while addressing teachers.

The latest NAS results, however, have put a question mark on if Punjab schools were really lagging behind, as claimed by the AAP, which stormed to power around two months in Punjab, and promised a complete overhaul of education and health system in the state.

Punjab report card- NAS 2021 

At the national level, the survey tested 34.01 lakh students from 1.18 lakh schools from class 3, 5, 8 and 10. From Punjab, a total of 1.17 lakh students were tested from 3656 schools including government and private both.

While class 3 and 5 children were tested in Language (Punjabi), maths and Environmental studies (EVS), the class 8 students were tested in language (Punjabi), maths, science and social science. Class 10 students were tested in English, maths, science, social science and Modern India Language (MIL), which in case of Punjab was Punjabi.

In the scaled scores out of 500, Punjab has scored the highest in all subjects for classes 3, 5 and 8. For class 10, it has scored the highest in maths, second highest in science, social science and MIL and third highest in English.

Punjab has scored more than the national average in all categories, as per the report.

• For class 3, Punjab has scored 355 in language (Punjabi), 339 in maths and 334 in EVS, higher than the national average of 323, 306 and 307, respectively— the highest among all states.
• For class 5, Punjab has scored 339 in language (Punjabi), 316 in maths and 310 in EVS, higher than the national average of 309, 284 and 283, respectively– the highest among all states.
• For class 8, Punjab has scored 338 in language (Punjabi), 297 in maths, 287 in science and 288 in social science– higher than the national average of 302, 255, 250 and 255 respectively, also the highest among all states.

Only in class 10, Punjab has scored the highest in just one of five subjects but still higher than the national average. While it has scored the highest 273 in maths, it stands at number two in MIL, science and social science (after UT Chandigarh). In English, it stands at number 3 with a score of 330 (after Chandigarh and Goa).

Delhi vs Punjab debate

Even as AAP leaders in Punjab have been claiming that government schools in Punjab stand nowhere in front of Delhi, the NAS report shows that Punjab has scored more than Delhi in all subjects for all classes (3, 5, 8 and 10). Even for class 10, Delhi has scored less than Punjab in all subjects including English in which Punjab stands third (after Chandigarh and Goa). While Punjab’s average score in English for class 10 is 330, it is 321 for Delhi (out of 500).

Level of education in Punjab ‘deteriorating’, says education minister

Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, AAP MLA from Barnala and state’s education minister, who has been touring government schools across the state to ‘take ground-level feedback’ from teachers and students in Punjab, in a statement issued Wednesday, had said that the level of education in the state was ‘deteriorating’.

“The deteriorating level of education was revealed during my personal interactions with the students during the visits to government schools. The earlier governments have failed to provide basic facilities and showed false baseline results by encouraging copying so as to paint a false picture of development. That explains why the government schools are lagging behind despite having able teachers. The burden of farcical results would be taken off the shoulders of the teachers and students to make Punjab the top state and focus would be on quality education.”