India, May 11 -- There is a figure that should unsettle every policymaker who believes India's best days lie ahead. It is not the fiscal deficit or its demographic dividend. It is this: In Grades 6, 7, and 8, the middle years of schooling, when adolescent minds are at their most cognitively plastic-most capable of learning, adapting, and forming lifelong pathways-the national average score in mathematics is only about 37%. In science, the performance is only marginally better.

This is not a new finding. The National Achievement Survey of 2021 clearly established it. The PARAKH 2024 assessment confirmed it. What is striking is not the data itself, but the muted response it has provoked. India has rightly built a national conversation arou...