JALANDHAR: In sync with its high-scoring Performance Grade Index (PGI)-2020 report, Punjab has got first rank in the National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted by the Union ministry of education on November 12, 2021, in all subjects of classes III, V and VIII. It also has bagged top three positions in five subjects and the No 1 ranking in mathematics in Class X.
While there has been much hype about the ‘Delhi model’ of education during elections, Delhi lags behind in all the subjects in the four classes, including Class X.
Punjab had got the highest score of 929 out of 1000 in overall ranking in the PGI-2020 report released by the central ministry in January last year, which had led to a heated exchange between Punjab and Delhi government after Delhi deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia had ridiculed the report saying it was a “way to show the blessings Modiji had showered on Captain Amarinder Singh” when quality education and learning had become a "joke" in Punjab government schools. Amarinder had hit back at that time saying that the AAP leadership was so "obsessed" with electoral politics that it saw poll conspiracies even in something as basic as school education.
In NAS, which tests the learning outcome of the students, Punjab has topped in Mathematics in Class X, got second slot in three other subjects and is placed third in English, after Chandigarh and Goa.
A total of 34.01 lakh students had appeared in the tests in the survey and 1.17 lakh students had appeared from Punjab. The biggest chunk of students were from government schools and more students appeared from rural schools.
The test was conducted for language, mathematics and environmental studies for Class III and V; language, mathematics, science and social science for Class VIII and Modern Indian language, mathematics, science, social science and English for Class X.
For this survey, NCERT was entrusted with the task of development of assessment framework while CBSE was responsible for the administration part.
Out of total 500 marks, for Class III, Punjab scored 355 in language, 339 in mathematics and 334 in environmental studies (EVS). Delhi schools scored 302, 282 and 288, respectively, which is below the national average in all the subjects.
For Class V, Punjab scored 339 in language, 316 in mathematics and 310 in EVS while Delhi schools scored 304, 273, and 274 marks, respectively, in these subjects. In Class VIII, Punjab scored 338 marks in language, 297 in mathematics, 287 in science and 288 in social sciences while Delhi schools had 316, 253, 257 and 254 marks in these subjects.
In Class X, Punjab scored 288 marks in modern Indian language, getting second position, with Chandigarh topping in the subject with 290 marks.
Punjab was number-1 state in mathematics with a score of 273, and it was second in science (254) and social sciences (270), while Chandigarh topped in both subjects with 260 and 287 marks, respectively. In English, Chandigarh topped with 345 marks, followed by Goa (338) and Punjab (330) marks. The AAP government in Punjab or Delhi did not react to the NAS 2021 report. Punjab education minister Gurmeet Singh 'Meet' Hayer and Sisodia did not tweet anything about the report till Thursday late evening. There was no tweet or statement from the Punjab government twitter handle also.
