Educational Insights | Stay Informed with Edinbox

The first nationwide test in the series under the PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) program, named Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, has brought to fore revealing insights into India's education system's state.

Conducted on December 4, 2024, the test evaluated approximately 21.15 lakh students from 74,229 schools within 781 districts, for Grade 3, Grade 6, and Grade 9 based on the NEP 2020 levels. The test was held in order to ascertain competency-based learning outcomes in subjects like Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, and Environmental Studies.

The key findings present alarming gaps: while Grade 3 students produced encouraging results—57% exhibiting language and 65% showing mathematics proficiency—performance crashed in higher grades. The majority of Grades 6 and 9 students lack a basis in mathematics, science, and reading comprehension.

Rural students excelled over their urban peers at the early stages, and State Government schools led Grade 3 scores, showing the beginning of the NIPUN Bharat Mission contribution. However, while grades progress, gender as well as rural-urban disparities remain apparent. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh states got all-time high proficiency rates.

PARAKH's robust methodology blended paper-and-pencil tests with OMR technology and was overseen by over 95,000 field investigators, 3,128 district-level officers, and 180 state nodal officers. The survey also recorded responses of over 2.7 lakh teachers and school principals, in digital tool usage and students' well-being.

Dr. Japasree Mukherjee, Principal, Orchids The International School, Malad West, stated, "The PARAKH report has highlighted various discoveries which will be a guiding light for creating innovative teaching practices in schools.". It rightly emphasizes the significance of embracing strong pedagogies to inculcate core skills in science and mathematics subjects so that children develop a sound foundation as they move to advanced classes and acquire an inherent interest in these subjects. These findings are consistent with NEP 2020, which places major emphasis on the incorporation of digital learning to strengthen teaching techniques and testing practices.

We at Orchids The International School have always made a conscious effort to integrate these very principles in our educational philosophy. Our Early Years Program is designed to offer a wholesome and challenging space for children between the age group of 2-5 years old with a mix of play-based learning, interactive sessions, and an international best practice-inspired curriculum.". We also provide best comprehension of a student of a specific grade with the experiential learning through our specially crafted teaching learning kits. Our teachers tailor their instruction to meet each child's way of learning, developing basic thinking and written skills and building a solid foundation for future academic achievement," she added further.

Experts point out that while positive changes at foundational levels have been seen, the overall learning gains are a cause for concern, similar to previous reports such as ASER, and call for a drastic system overhaul.

The Education Ministry has pledged to release detailed district and state reports by July 2025 and focused workshops to bridge learning gaps and augment NEP 2020 objectives.

The Uttar Pradesh government launched on Thursday a 'Learning by Doing' program to reorient education in government schools throughout the state, according to a statement.

"According to the National Education Policy 2020, this programme offers students of classes 6 to 8 hands-on training in various areas like woodwork, metalwork, energy and environment, agriculture and horticulture, and health and nutrition," the statement added.

The effort, under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, is a reflection of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's vision of connecting education with employability and life skills, it further added.

Adityanath has always stressed establishing Uttar Pradesh as self-sufficient and empowered, which means incorporating skills into education.

"Following this vision, the Basic Education Department has offered four-day multi-skilling training to science and mathematics teachers, allowing them to equip students with the ability to face real-life situations along with academics," the statement added.

Besides, with UNICEF technical support and collaboration with Vigyan Ashram, the state has created a teachers' guide consisting of 60 skill-based activities, which has been ratified by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), it said. 

The government highlighted that during 2024–25, the programme would be expanded with the opening of modern Learning by Doing (LBD) laboratories in 2,274 upper primary and composite schools spread across all 75 districts of the state.

Each of the laboratories has 205 varieties of contemporary tools and apparatus. School Management Committees (SMCs) have also been offered raw materials and consumables to aid these activities, it added.

The pilot run of the programme was earlier conducted in 60 schools in 15 districts, imparting training to 5,937 students in different trades. The government added that the programme contributed to an improved attendance and learning interest among students.

The government added that it is also making efforts to roll out this innovative program to another 3,288 schools in the 2025–26 academic year through the Samagra Shiksha and PM SHRI schemes.

"This rollout will benefit lakhs of students in the state through vocational education," it said.

The government has also averred that the programme not only empowers students with new skills but also teaches respect for the dignity of labour. The best feature is that girls actively participate in engineering, electrical works, and workshop activities, leading to gender equality in practical education.

The initiative not only cultivating skilled and independent citizens but also establishing the foundation for strong, self-dependent Uttar Pradesh, according to the Skill India Mission," said Basic Education Minister Sandeep Singh.

The majority of those who seek higher education from India never return," declared Prof Nayyar.

"There is a deep silent crisis in Indian higher education. It is palpable," Deepak Nayyar, distinguished academician and Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said on Wednesday while giving the BG Deshmukh Lecture 2025 on 'The Crisis of Higher Education in India: Alarming Present and Concerning Future'. 

The crisis is caused by underfunding, political interference, and lack of autonomy, Nayyar explains. "It is no accident our universities have not produced any Nobel laureates in the last 25 years. And I think they never will in the next 25 years, the way we are going," he said.

According to the professor, "The available educational opportunities for school-leavers are simply not enough, and those available are not good enough. The pockets of excellence are products of an enormous reservoir of talent and Darwinian selection processes. It does little for those with average ability or without social opportunities."

The researcher also pointed out how year after year, there has been a steady rise in the number of Indian students abroad pursuing higher studies, the figures growing from approximately 50,000 in the year 2000 to 350,000 in the year 2015, and 600,000 in the year 2019. It further grew to 900,000 in the year 2023, and Indian students abroad spent a staggering $27 billion in the year 2023, equal to India's foreign exchange earnings for tourism in the same year. Significantly: "A large proportion of those who continue education beyond school from India don't return," Prof Nayyar noted.

Here, it's interesting to mention that the "dispersion of education in society is the foundation of success of countries which are late starters to development," he stressed.

The professor strongly emphasized the impact of political interference on higher education, which, he insisted, was not fresh, since the 1975-77 Emergency was a turning point, but gained momentum after the BJP government came to power and Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. "The past five years, since 2019, have seen a fast-paced acceleration of the process. Now it has reached a stage when the fate of public universities in India is at stake."

It's happening in two ways: "First, there is an observable rise of institutionalized control mechanisms that shape what universities can or cannot do," Prof Nayyar said. And "second, appointments in the universities, which would be the sole preserve of the universities, are more and more being made, if not decided by the political motivation, and the unseen hands of the ruling governments. And now, even the admission procedures have been centralized by the National Testing Agency," he further stated, adding that the BJP and RSS ideology are now strongly influencing higher education in India.

Privacy is no longer simply the right to be alone in the digital age. Privacy is now a contested territory, an arena in which technology companies, government agencies, advertisers, and everyday individuals fight over the right to decide what is done with data. At every step we take, whether using Navigation Apps, scrolling through social media, or seeking health information, we leave a trail of data, or breadcrumbs, that are scraped, harvested, analyzed, and monetized in ways most people using technology never understand. Reflecting on the data economy, this is not a glitch, but the very system within which we operate.’ Welcome to the age of *surveillance capital*’.

Professor’ Shoshana Zuboff’(Harvard) describes we have entered the age of *surveillance capitalism*. This new organizing logic collects, extracts and commercializes personal data. Humans' lifetime experiences become a free source of raw material to be turned into profit. When we talk about *surveillance capitalism*, we are talking about a powerful, largely invisible machine that shapes questions of privacy, consent, autonomy, and democracy. 

Grasping Surveillance Capitalism

Surveillance capitalism is the commercialization of individual experience. Big Tech companies—Google, Meta, Amazon, and others—are continuously accumulating vast quantities of personal data on their users: search histories, location data, voice commands, biometric data, and social and commercial interactions. This data is not only used to improve a service, but more importantly, to anticipate—and shape—future behavior.

The predictions are sold to advertisers, political campaigns, and a host of other third-party vendors. Significantly, this model operates on an asymmetry of knowledge and power: individuals know very little about what data is being collected from them and how it is used, whereas companies know everything about their users.

This model has moved significantly beyond targeted advertising. It has grown into pricing insurance, determining employment decisions, police surveillance, and even influencing elections.

The Devaluation of Privacy

Privacy as a *human right*—expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Indian Constitution—becomes illusory inside a regime of data extraction at scale. Surveillance capitalism flourishes in darkness, implicitly excluding informed consent and relying on obscure terms and conditions that, for the most part, go unread.

Even when people try to protect their data, they are often outpaced. An app can track users in the background long after permissions have been revoked. Facial recognition systems scan public spaces without knowledge or consent. Smart devices unintentionally record conversations. This all leads to a "panopticon effect"in which people act differently just knowing that they might be observed.

The Psychological Price of Constant Surveillance

Surveillance capitalism not only impacts our data – it also can impact our minds and the way we act. When users know that they are constantly being watched, they can be pressured to engage in *self-censorship*, have anxiety, and lack spontaneity.

Psychologists argue that constant surveillance erodes one’s *sense of agency and identity*. Social media algorithms (that use surveillance data) try to reward the user by only providing content that validates their existing belief systems, therefore creating echo chambers and fostering polarization. In addition, digital manipulation based on personalized psychometric profiles—for instance, Cambridge Analytica—was able to successfully nudge voting choices, product preferences, and emotional manipulation.

We are now heading toward a world where surveillance is both external, as well as an internalized phenomenon. We are now shifting into an arena where the difference between persuasion and manipulation is disintegrating.

The Real-World Impacts

1. Cambridge Analytica and Electoral Manipulation

One of the archetypal examples of surveillance capitalism was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the data of 87 million people was collected from Facebook, without consent, and then used to interfere with various elections, including the 2016 U.S. Presidential, and the Brexit vote. This case made evident the ways in which predictive data models could manipulate consumer behaviours—or as was done nefariously, the fate of an entire democracy.

2. China’s Social Credit System

In China, surveillance capitalism meets state control. The state deploys AI smart surveillance along with data collection to support a social credit system where individuals receive an often-numbered score based upon their behaviours, financial background, and even friendships. If an individual has a low score, he or she can be prevented from travel, prohibited from being hired in certain jobs and shamed by a social scorecard. Although state controlled, the system highlights the extent to which surveillance can determine opportunities and freedoms in real life.

3.Aadhaar and Digital Identity in India

India's *Aadhaar system*—the largest biometric ID program in the world—was intended to be a system for accessing welfare and promoting digital inclusion. But when Aadhaar was adopted by public services, banks, and telecoms the governmental side of the database caused serious privacy risks (e.g., data leaks, surveillance, misuse of biometric data).

In 2017, the *Supreme Court of India* held that *privacy is a fundamental right,* but the Aadhaar infrastructure raises challenging questions about how data protection will manifest in developing democracies.

The Contribution of Civil Society and Digital Literacy

While legal frameworks are important, *public awareness, activism by civil society organizations*, and campaigns to empower citizens are also crucial in addressing the challenges of surveillance capitalism. There are many organizations doing good work in advocating for rights relating to privacy including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Mozilla Foundation, and India's Internet Freedom Foundation.

Digital literacy is also important. People should know how algorithms work, what data they produce, and how they should protect themselves. Schools, universities, and governments should invest in education to help users take the next step in their digital lives responsibly.

Lastly, media literacy helps a citizen to see the manipulation and misinformation involved with a society that depends on recommendation engines based on surveillance.

Is Ethical Technology Possible?

Surveillance capitalism is not the only possibility for online user engagement: there are *alternative business models* and technologies where users enjoy privacy and actual control over online engagement: 

- With *Privacy centered browsers* such as Brave and Firefox, the technology neither tracks user behavior nor sells data. 

- With *decentralized platforms* Unlike Mastodon and Solid, users own their data and can connect with each other without worrying about being surveilled by a central entity.

- The end-to-end, encrypted communication app Signal has made privacy a main feature of the tech (albeit they do charge for the app). 

Do some tech companies - such as Apple - help users by marketing privacy as a feature? Sure, but some contend that this commercially driven marketing has more to do with disassociation from the "evil" meaning of online engagement rather than a true philosophical shift. 

At the end of the day, if ethical technologies and technologies truly concerned with privacy are going to snowball into development and adoption, users (demand!), investors (excitement!) and regulators (intervention!) need to be involved.

Resisting the Invisible Empire

We're living in an age of surveillance capitalism and this is well beyond our understanding and acquiescence—without ever really knowing the depth of our complicity. We've been conditioned and controlled through our phones, fitness trackers, smart homes and social media so that everything we say or do is sucked-up, refined, measured and analyzed into making choices for us.

However, the good news is that there is a growing global effort behind protecting our right to privacy, demands for transparency, ethical technology, regulation and practice-change that is mounting. Governments are making legislative changes, civil society is mobilizing, and public consciousness is rising in response to the now-dominant surveillance model.

To think that protecting our privacy is only a matter of stopping a data breach, turning off Location Services on our devices, etc., trivializes the significance of what is actually at stake: *our autonomy, democratic liberties, and the very essence of human dignity* in a world that is increasingly algorithmically driven and profit motivated.

In other words, if surveillance capitalism is the infrastructure of control, then the fight for privacy represents the movement of resistance, and it needs participants, advocates and courage.

ARTICLE BY- ANANYA AWASTHI 

Indian toy sector is making a sudden transformation. The traditional formula market led by conventional as well as entertainment-driven products is becoming more dynamic in which technology, learning, and innovation converge. Next-generation smart toys — predominantly those founded on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and play-learning — are revolutionizing early childhood.

With more demand for learning value, brain stimulation, and interactive play, the toy market is fast emerging as a profitable driving force behind learning success, skill acquisition, and e-literacy. It also leads a broader transformation in early learning delivery. 

From Rote Memorisation to Play-Based Learning

Experiential and child-directed discovery is facilitated by imaginative play, role-play, and other activities by play-based learning. Additionally, the process enhances children's imagination and curiosity through participation in activities that challenge their knowledge of the world.

In such environments, teachers act as facilitators, rather than in other contexts - more of guidance than instruction, i.e., encouraging early problem-solving, emotional IQ, and independent thought. Such education does not just encourage fundamental academic learning but also complements social interaction, language development, and physical skills — creating a comprehensive learning foundation for life.

STEM Toys: Learning By Doing

The knowledge gap of the theoretical principles of the current system is being addressed with STEM toys. They transfer science, technology, engineering and mathematics principles in an interactive way. Model making, basic experiments, coding of robots, etc., are a few of them. Besides, by giving outward expressions of abstract ideas with concrete outcomes, STEM toys increase children's ability to learn and memory power.

Such toys are developed with the goal to intellectually stimulate children. They encourage children's observation, logical reasoning, and imagination in their minds. Furthermore, STEM play interactivity improves problem-solving abilities and ingrains innovation thinking at a very early age.

Working with the Digital Generation and Technology

Incorporation of technology in toys is now very trendy in India, due to the extensive use of digital natiaves and smart devices. Internet of Things, AR and app connectivity are incorporated into connected, smart interactive toys. Again, it enables interactive learning from static play.

These advancements that are implemented in toys have become widely adopted worldwide as a result of their digital nature. Some of them include dynamic feedback, adaptive difficulty, individualized content, etc. All these put together have made learning personalized and richer. Intelligent toys are also well-apt for emerging models of education. So, interaction is maximized without sacrificing developmental usability and safety.

Developing Analytical and Motor Skills

Intelligent toys build mind-building by instructing basic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. Intelligent toys prompt children to engage in playing with cause-and-effect thoughts, spatial sense, and logic. Legos construction kits and building toys require children to think strategically, plan, and resolve problems.

Such toys also help in the creation of critical cognitive skills that will last them a lifetime. Secondly, such Lego toys also have to be learned with regard to which the fine motor skill of the child is enhanced. In manipulating, stacking and moving objects in such toys, they attain hand-eye coordination and handiness.

Market Size and Innovation

India's toy industry is expected to reach USD 3 billion by 2028. This is with policy support, incentives in the direction of domestic manufacturing as well as product design value addition. Newer technologies such as 3D printing, AR, etc., are making it easy to prototype and facilitate highly interactive experiences. Retail models are evolving. Omnichannel models now combine e-commerce convenience with innovations at the store level such as AR displays and interactive kiosks.

Concise and to the point, the Indian toy industry is at the crossroads now, as it is turning the game of play into a super powerful learning machine. While intelligent toys continue to upgrade themselves to their own extent, not only will they shape the child years. Rather, they will equip the children with the minimum requirements to design a smarter, brighter, curious, and technology-facilitated generation. The intersection of play, technology, and learning will define the future of Indian education, enabling smart toy to smart toy.

In a harrowing incident that has set off a chain reaction of outrage, girl students in classes 5 to 10 at RS Damani School in Shahapur, Thane district, were forced to strip and get a menstruation check by school authorities after blood spots were seen in a school toilet.

As per police sources, the incident happened on Tuesday when school officials allegedly found blood stains in a washroom. What ensued has left parents, child rights activists, and teachers in the state stunned. The administration, rather than addressing the issue sensitively, apparently called some girls to the toilet and questioned them about whether or not they had their periods. Parents also allege that some of the students were asked to take off their underclothes for inspection.

The psychological effect on the students has been traumatic, with some reported to be in a state of shock. "Rather than educating these girls about menstruation—a natural physiological process—they have been embarrassed and subjected to enormous mental pressure," said one parent who wished to remain unnamed when approached by NDTV. "This act is shameful and a gross violation of child rights. We want the principal arrested without delay."

After protests by the parents at the school on the following day, the police have intervened and registered a case since then. The principal is also being questioned.

The incident has led to a fresh clamor for menstrual education in schools and more sensitivity on the part of educators. Activists have condemned the ignorance and insensitivity displayed by the school administration, particularly in the case of such a natural phenomenon of adolescent health.

As the probe goes on, parents and rights organizations are calling for answers and severe action against the perpetrators. The education department is also bound to undertake an internal investigation.