2 June 2022

As I looked at the latest National Achievement Survey (NAS) report released last week, I recalled a meeting that happened more than a decade ago. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had invited me to a meeting to plan the next NAS for 2011. I recall saying something like this to my colleagues there: “Yours is the best and the worst survey on the quality of learning in Indian schools. Best, because your sample and question design are impeccable. Worst, because no one can read your reports or make sense of them. It provides no meaningful input for policy making”. We are looking at one of the worst instances of ‘edu-cide’ in recent times.