With more than half of all children in standard five at least three grade levels behind where they should be, the standards of learning continue to deteriorate in the country, thanks to the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, mass recruitment of teachers and the high-level curriculum in the early stages of school education.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2012) by NGO Pratham shows that the number of class five students who could not read a class two level text or solve a simple arithmetic problem has increased. In 2010, this number stood at 46.3%, 51.8% in 2011 and 53.2% in 2012.