New Delhi, April 12 -- For the first time, PARAKH, the national assessment centre under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), is conducting one-on-one assessments of Class 3 students under the Foundational Learning Study (FLS) 2026, enabling real-time data capture and improving efficiency, officials said on Saturday. Officials said that around 10,000 trained field investigators from District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs) are conducting FLS 2026 in a phased manner in 20 languages "using tablets in a one-on-one mode." More than 1,00,000 Class 3 students across 10,000 government, government-aided and private schools in 36 states and Union territories will be assessed. Officials said the results will serve as a "mid-term analysis" to assess progress under the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat), launched to achieve universal FLN by 2026-27. The assessments cover students' abilities in comprehension and oral reading fluency among others....