Disclosure: India Market Entry (IME) is Macat’s official India partner.
Everyone wants graduates who can think critically. But how do you teach that in a classroom, and how do you know it’s working?
Key Takeaways
- NEP 2020 and NCF-SE 2023 move schools away from testing recall and towards testing how well students apply what they know.
- In PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, average maths scores fell from 60% in Class 3 to 46% in Class 6 and 37% in Class 9.
- Schools can start small: open questions, source-checking and rubrics that assess reasoning, not only answers.
Higher order thinking skills are increasingly the focus of employers. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that seven in 10 employers consider analytical thinking essential, and that employers expect 39% of workers’ existing skill sets to be transformed or become outdated by 2030.
For Indian schools, this raises a simple question: how can education keep pace with what students will need beyond the classroom? NEP 2020 makes critical thinking a priority. It wants classrooms where students ask questions, dig into ideas, talk things through, and use what they learn, instead of just racing to finish the syllabus. NCF-SE 2023 goes a step further by building the curriculum around competencies, meaning what students can actually do with their learning.
India’s classrooms are still catching up. This article explains why critical thinking under NEP 2020 is a policy priority, what national data says about the gap, and how schools can teach and assess it.
What NEP 2020 Asks Schools to Change
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is India’s education reform framework. It calls for cutting back on unnecessary curriculum content and giving students more room to ask questions, discuss ideas, analyse information and solve problems. The goal isn’t to see how much students can remember. It’s to see how well they can use it. NCF-SE 2023 goes a step further. It asks a simple question: what can students actually do with what they know? Can they compare two sources? Question a claim? Take an idea and apply it to something new? Simply recalling facts does not show the full range of skills students are expected to develop.
This puts critical thinking at the centre of a larger change: from testing whether students know something to testing how well they can apply their knowledge to understand information and solve problems.
What National Data Shows About the Gap
The PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, India’s large-scale assessment aligned with NEP 2020, tested Classes 3, 6 and 9 across 781 districts in all 36 States and Union Territories.
Average maths performance fell from 60% in Class 3 to 46% in Class 6 and 37% in Class 9. These are mathematics achievement figures, not direct measures of critical-thinking proficiency.
The results also indicated that preparatory and middle stages lack innovative and engaging approaches to teaching. Reporting on the results highlighted relatively limited use of activities such as puzzles and connections between classroom learning and students’ experiences. However, these findings should not be interpreted as establishing a single cause for lower achievement.
Foundational Literacy Matters Too
The literacy base matters too. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 found something hard to ignore: 25% of rural students aged 14 to 18 could not fluently read a Class 2 text in their own regional language. The survey spoke to 34,745 young people across 28 districts in 26 states.
Foundational literacy matters because students need to be able to access and understand information before they can meaningfully evaluate, interpret, or reason about it. The ASER finding should therefore be treated as evidence of a foundational learning challenge, not as direct evidence that one-quarter of adolescents lack critical-thinking skills.
From Rote Habits to Critical Thinking Habits
Critical thinking is a set of classroom habits, not a separate subject. The table below shows how everyday routines change.
| Classroom routine | Rote version | Critical thinking version |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | “What is the definition of…” | “Why does this happen, and what if the condition changes?” |
| Sources | One textbook answer | Compare two sources and note where they disagree |
| Discussion | Teacher explains, students copy | Students state a position and defend it with evidence |
| Homework | Worksheet with one correct answer | A short project with a reasoned recommendation |
| Assessment | Recall of facts | Application to an unfamiliar problem and explanation of the reasoning |
Teaching and Assessing Critical Thinking in Practice
A practical starting point is to combine classroom practice with structured assessment. Three practices can help schools begin:
- Ask open questions daily. A single “why” or “what would change your answer” question per lesson builds the habit.
- Teach students to check sources. In an age of AI-generated text, students need to ask who wrote a claim, what evidence backs it, and what is missing.
- Assess reasoning, not only answers. Give marks for how a student concluded, using a simple rubric with criteria such as evidence, logic and clarity.
Teachers need support with this too. It is one thing to teach from a lesson plan, but another to get students talking, asking questions and thinking for themselves. Practical examples and a little planning time can make that much easier for teachers.
The Path Forward for Schools
Schools can begin by selecting one grade band, introducing a small number of reasoning-focused tasks, and using structured assessment to identify areas for development. Reassessing students over time can help teachers understand progress and refine instruction.
Macat’s PACIER framework brings six skills together: Problem Solving, Analysis, Creative Thinking, Interpretation, Evaluation and Reasoning. It gives schools a structured way to look beyond the final answer and understand how students approach problems, assess information and reach conclusions.
This also gives education providers a practical way to work with schools beyond a single assessment. The approach can be used across school programmes, teacher training and student development, helping schools build critical-thinking skills and track progress over time.
India Market Entry (IME) is Macat’s official India partner. Explore Macat’s critical thinking programs for schools.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is critical thinking a priority under NEP 2020?
NEP 2020 calls for cutting back on unnecessary curriculum content and giving students more room to ask questions, discuss ideas, analyse information and solve problems. NCF-SE 2023 builds the curriculum around competencies: what students can actually do with what they know.
What does PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 show?
The survey assessed more than 2.1 million students in Classes 3, 6 and 9 across 781 districts. Average maths scores fell from 60% in Class 3 to 46% in Class 6 and 37% in Class 9. These are achievement figures, not direct measures of critical thinking.
How can schools teach critical thinking?
Start with small daily habits: ask open questions, teach students to check sources, and assess reasoning as well as answers using a simple rubric.
How can schools assess critical thinking?
Use structured assessment and reassess students over time. Macat’s PACIER framework covers six skills: Problem Solving, Analysis, Creative Thinking, Interpretation, Evaluation and Reasoning.
References
- World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025: Skills Outlook
- Ministry of Education, National Education Policy 2020
- NCERT, National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023
- NCERT (PARAKH), PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024: National Report
- ASER Centre, ASER 2023: Beyond Basics
- Macat, Critical thinking for schools
