ASER, UDISE+, and NAS data from 2023–25 give us the first reliable picture of whether the National Education Policy is working.
The National Education Policy 2020 was the most ambitious overhaul of India's education architecture since the 1968 Kothari Commission. Three implementation years in, we now have enough data from ASER, UDISE+, and the National Achievement Survey to make preliminary assessments — not of the policy's ambition, but of its actual trajectory.
Foundational Literacy Outcomes
ASER 2025 shows that the proportion of Class 3 students able to read a Class 2-level text has risen from 16.3% (2022) to 21.7% (2025) nationally. This is meaningful progress — but it starts from an alarmingly low base, and it is unevenly distributed. States that implemented NIPUN Bharat mission targets early (HP, Gujarat, Rajasthan) show gains of 8–12 percentage points. States where implementation was delayed or partial (UP, Bihar, Assam) show gains of 2–4 points.
ASER 2025 surveyed 600,000 children across 19,000+ villages in all 28 states. UDISE+ 2024-25 data covers 1.5 million schools. NAS 2024 covered Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10 across 36 states/UTs.
NEP's foundational literacy push is working — but only in states that treated implementation as a governance priority, not a compliance exercise.
Mother-Tongue Medium Instruction
NEP's flagship pedagogical recommendation — instruction in mother tongue through at least Grade 5 — has been partially implemented in 14 states. The evidence on outcomes is early but promising: ASER data shows that children taught in mother tongue through Grade 3 perform 18–24% better on reading comprehension tasks than matched peers taught in a second language from Grade 1.
Higher Education Transformation
NEP's multidisciplinary framework for higher education — allowing students to combine science, humanities, and vocational subjects — has been adopted in 340 of India's 1,072 universities. The adoption rate is higher among private universities (54%) than central universities (38%) and state universities (28%). Early data on student satisfaction is positive, but graduate employment outcomes will only be measurable in 2027–28 for the first cohort.
Dropout Rate Trends
Secondary-level dropout rates — the most stubborn structural problem in Indian education — have not yet moved significantly. The national secondary dropout rate was 14.1% in 2022-23; UDISE+ 2024-25 puts it at 13.4%. A marginal improvement, but insufficient given that NEP's vision requires near-universal secondary completion by 2030.
What States Are Implementing
State-level variation in NEP implementation is vast. Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Karnataka have moved furthest on foundational literacy and mother-tongue instruction. West Bengal has explicitly diverged, retaining its existing curriculum framework. Bihar and UP have adopted NEP rhetoric without significant structural change. This variation means NEP's national impact will depend heavily on which implementation model the lagging states eventually converge toward.
