The State Educational Achievement Survey will test as many as 3.2 lakh students in 10,789 schools in Kerala.
Conducted by PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), a national assessment centre set up under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the survey that will be held on November 3 will test students’ learning competencies in Classes III, VI, and IX.
To be held ahead of a national survey in 2024, the exercise will be held in 29,000 classrooms and has a huge sample size of nearly one lakh students in each of the classes.
The survey is significant for it will provide feedback on student learning at the block level to design pedagogical interventions at the grassroots.
While reports cards of student performances at the district, State, and national level are available courtesy earlier National Achievement Surveys (NAS), the State Educational Achievement Survey will generate block-level data to support plans for quality enhancement at the grassroots level.
NAS was last held in the State in 2021 for Classes III, V, VIII, and X. Its results indicated COVID-19-induced learning gaps, prompting the State to conduct its own achievement survey earlier this year. The results of the State survey also tied in with the national assessment, especially related to social science.
The Samagra Shiksha Kerala, will coordinate the conduct of the examinations, while the State Council of Educational Research and Training will coordinate the academic activities such as translation of the question paper, training for invigilators, and so on.
Owing to problems with translation in the last NAS, the questionnaire prepared by the NCERT for the latest survey will be sent to the State for translation into the local language before being returned to the NCERT for validation. Once it is ensured that the questionnaire is in tune with the State’s learning outcomes, nod for printing will be given. Central observers will visit schools at random during the survey.
The data will be compiled at the national level and the State informed of its performance in the survey.
PARAKH was launched to bring in assessment reforms and bring various school educational boards under one umbrella as part of the National Education Policy. Educational Testing Service (ETS) was selected as technical partner for setting up PARAKH.
