Over Half of Indian School Children Struggle With Basics; PARAKH Survey Reveals Learning Gaps & Disparities

PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan: A recent 2025 PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PARAKH RS) , formerly known as the National Achievement Survey (NAS), has unveiled significant and concerning learning gaps among Indian schoolchildren. The survey, conducted in December last year, reveals that a substantial percentage of students in Classes 6 and 9 are struggling with fundamental concepts in mathematics, language comprehension, and science.

This comprehensive assessment underscores persistent challenges within the country's education system.

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The findings are particularly stark:

43% of India's schoolchildren in Class 6 are unable to grasp main ideas in texts, indicating a critical deficit in language skills. Even more alarming, a staggering 63% of Class 9 students fail to identify simple patterns in numbers or comprehend basic numerical sets, such as fractions and integers. These figures highlight the widespread nature of foundational learning deficiencies that are affecting a large segment of the student population.

The PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan was an extensive exercise, assessing a massive sample of 21,15,022 (Over 21 Lakh) students.

The participants were drawn from class 3, 6, and 9, encompassing 74,229 schools across both government and private sectors.

The survey covered 781 districts, spanning all 36 states and union territories, providing a broad and representative overview of the educational landscape in India.

Students demonstrated particular difficulties with practical application of concepts. For instance, many struggled with tasks like identifying multiples of 7, understanding powers of 3, recognizing prime numbers, and applying percentage and fraction concepts to daily-life problems.

Performance in science and social science was equally concerning, with over 60% of Class 9 students failing to meet minimum competency benchmarks in these subjects. In science, students were unable to classify matter based on physical and chemical characteristics, describe changes in matter using the particulate nature of substances, or explain properties of a magnet.

For Class 6 students, the findings in language skills were equally troubling. A significant 43% were unable to apply varied comprehension strategies such as inference, prediction, and visualization, or understand main ideas and draw conclusions from the material read.

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However, mathematics remained the most significant hurdle, with 54% of students unable to represent numbers using place value, compare whole numbers, or apply the four basic operations to solve everyday problems.

Even at the foundational stage in Class 3, only 55% of students could arrange numbers up to 99 in ascending or descending order, and merely 58% could perform addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers. Notably, central government schools recorded the lowest performance in mathematics at this grade level.

Persistent Disparities and Performance Trends:

The study unequivocally revealed that the rural-urban divide and gender gaps continue to persist in critical learning areas across the country. While Central government-run schools, such as Kendriya Vidyalayas, emerged as the best performers overall, even their data showed concerning trends, indicating that learning gaps are a systemic issue.

State-Wise Performance Snapshot:

The survey also flagged wide inter-state variations in learning outcomes. Here's a snapshot of how states performed across the three grades (3, 6, 9):

This data highlights the urgent need for targeted interventions and policy reforms to address these pervasive learning deficiencies and ensure equitable educational outcomes for all Indian schoolchildren. The findings from the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan serve as a critical wake-up call for the education system.