The objectives of study were: (1) The primary objective of the present investigation was to study the progress of primary education in Amritsar district after the New Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. (2) To examine the existing status of Minimum Level of Learning (MLL) at the primary stage of school education. (3) To ascertain the impact of the Operational Blackboard (OB) scheme on primary education. (4) To compare the academic achievement level of pupils studying in government and governmental aided primary schools. (5) To compare the physical infrastructure facilities available in government and government aided primary schools. (6) To study the impact of the introduction of English as one of the subjects on enrollment at the primary stage. (7) To study the incidence of dropout rate at primary stage of education. 

The hypotheses of study were: (1) It is expected that after the implementation of OB scheme, MLL will be attained by the primary school students. (2) The students of government and government aided primary schools will differ in academic achievement. (3) Government and government aided primary schools will differ in respect of infrastructural facilities and teaching-learning material. (4) OB scheme has led to the improvement of infrastructural facilities in government schools. (5) It is expected that after the introduction of English as one of the subjects enrollment will increase in government primary schools. (6) Actual attendance of students in government primary schools and the enrollment shown in the attendance registers will be at variance. (7) It is expected that dropout rate will decrease after the implementation of OB scheme. (8) In spite of the fact that teaching-learning material has been supplied to the schools under OB scheme, it can be hypothesized that still this material is not being properly utilized. 

A sample of 139 (10%) GPS were included in the study. A sample of 501 out of 5201 teachers working in these schools and 15180 students studying in these schools from I to V standard were included in the present investigation. A sample of 13 (50%) GAPS schools was included in the study. There were total 167 teachers working in these schools, out of them 73 were included in the sample. Similarly, 3510 students studying in these schools from I to V standard were included in the sample. Sampling of GSS was made by applying stratified proportionate random sampling and the convenient sampling was used while selecting teachers and students from these schools. The selection of government aided primary schools (GAPS) was made by applying method of purposive sampling and the teaches and students from these schools were selected by applying convenient sampling. 

Opinion Schedule for the Head Teachers, Opinion Schedule for Teachers and Interview schedules were used for data collection. Unstructured interview technique was adopted to know the opinions of head teachers, teachers, students and educated individuals of the village / mohalla regarding the quality of primary education, various difficulties faced by them and their suggestions for the implementation of the quality of primary education. In order to test the MLL in GPS and GAPS in Amritsar district, tests for MLL in three subjects viz., Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies for I to V grades were conducted by the investigator. The tests used for I and II grades were obtained from the (IDCC).

The study basically falls in the domain of descriptive research as it intends to evaluate the progress of primary education (classes I-V) in the existing environmental conditions in Amritsar district of Punjab 1986 onwards. 

The statistical techniques mean, standard deviation and critical ratio were used to test the hypotheses of the study. 

The findings of study were: (1) Out of 3864 students of I standard studying in GPS only 465 (12.03%), 424 (10.97%) and 503 (13.03%) students secured marks between 40-49% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Out of these students, 87.97%, 89.903%, and 86.99% students secured marks below 40% in the subject of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental studies respectively. Similarly, 62 (7.45%), 90 (10.82%) and 167 (20.07%) students out of 832 students of I standard studying in GAPS secured marks between 60-69% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Out of 832 students, 464 (55.77%), 481 (57.80%) and 451 (54.21%) students secured marks below 50% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Another information reported prior that 63.66%, 60.35% and 59.27% students of II standard studying in GPS secured less than 30% marks in subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Whereas, out of 806 students in GAPS, not even a single student could secure marks above 60%; 7.69% students secured marks between 60-69% in the subjects of Punjabi and Environmental Studies respectively. (2) Out of 3312 students of III standard studying in GPS, no one could secure marks above 49% in the subjects of Punjabi and Mathematics and 2.17% students secured marks between 50-59% in the subject of Environmental Studies. Similarly, out of 715 students of III standards studying in GAPS, 26 (36.50%), 290 (40.56%), and 271 (37.90%) students secured marks less then 40% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Out of 3312 students of III standard studying in GPS, no one could secure marks above 49% in the subjects of Punjabi and Mathematics and 2.17% students secured marks between 50-59% in the subject of Environmental Studies. Similarly, out of 715 students of III standards studying in GAPS, 26 (36.50%), 290 (40.56%) and 271 (37.90%) students secured marks less then 40% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Out of 2484 students of IV standard of GAPS, 78.66%, 80.47% and 77.82% students obtained marks below 30% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Out of 2484 students of IV standard of GAPS, 78.66%, 80.47% and 77.82% students obtained marks below 30% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Similarly, out of 611 students of IV standard studying in GAPS, 37 (6.06%), and 63 (10.31%) students secured marks between 70-79% in the subjects of Punjabi and Mathematics respectively and 16 (2.62%), 26 (4.26%) and 14 (2.29%) students even failed to achieve marks above 19% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. (3) Out of 1932 students of V standard studying in GPS, none was able to achieve marks above 49% in Mathematics and 418 (21.64%), 545 (28.21%) and 327 (16.92%) students secured marks even less than 10% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. Similarly, out of 546 students of V standard studying in GAPS, 67 (12.27%), 39 (7.14%) and 54 (9.89%) students obtained marks between 70-79% in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. (4) These results are clearly indicative of the fact that the students of I to V standards studying in GPS and GAPS were not able to learn minimum competencies in the subjects of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies respectively. These results clearly contradicted the hypothesis of the study that after the implementation of OB scheme, MLL will be attained by the students. The second hypothesis of the study was that the GPS and GAPS students will differ in academic achievement. Achievement of the students in MLL were taken as the basis for comparing their academic achievement which showed that the mean scores computed from the marks secured by the students of I to V standards studying in GAPS in the subject’s of Punjabi, Mathematics and Environmental Studies were approximately double as compared to the mean scores in the same standards and subjects of the students studying in GPS. The CR of all the subjects was significant 0.01 level. These statistics clearly supported the hypothesis of the study that academic achievement level of the students of GPS and GAPS will differ. (5) The third hypothesis was that government and government aided primary school will differ in respect of infrastructural facilities and teaching-learning material. The results of the study concluded that out of 139 GPS, 70 (50.36%), 49 (32.25%) and 20 (14.39%) have 2, 3 and more than 3 classrooms respectively. None of the schools were equipped with staff room and office for the head teacher. Out of these schools, 116 (83.45%), 128 (92.09%), 92 (66.18%), 55 (39.57%), and 66 (46.77%) schools were without toilet facilities, separate toilet facilities for girls, play ground, boundary wall and electricity facilities respectively. None of the schools were equipped with textbooks for teachers, teachers’ guide, globe, blocks, strips, tiles, toys, games equipment, science kit, mathematics kit, mini took kit, library books, dictionaries, news papers, magazines music instrument and duster etc. On the contrary 100% GAPS equipped with more than 4 classrooms, staff room, office for the head teachers, toilet facilities, separate toilet facilities for girls, boundary wall, drinking water facilities, electricity facilities, fans, syllabus, toys, games equipment, news papers, magazines, benches, trunk, duster, dust bin and bell etc. These statistics clearly supported the hypothesis of the study that GPS and GAPS will differ in respect of infrastructural facilities and teaching-learning material, GAPS were found to be better equipped as compared to GPS. These findings also contradicted the fourth hypothesis of the study that OB scheme has led to the improvement of infrastructural facilities in GPS. The fifth hypothesis was that after the introduction of English as one of the subjects enrollment will increase in GPS. It was found by the investigator that in the academic session 1998-99 the enrollment in GPS in Punjabi was 1865470 and in Amritsar district 218573. The statistics for the academic session 2000-01 was 1026344 in Punjab and Amritsar respectively. These results clearly contradicted the hypothesis of the study that after the introduction of English as one of the subject enrollment will increase in GPS. The sixth hypothesis of the study was that actual attendance of students in GPS and the enrollment shown in the attendance registers will be at variance. The results of the study revealed that overall presence of students shown in the attendance registers was 89.92% whereas only 58.53% students were found actually present in the schools. Thus, 31.39% students were actually absent but shown present in the schools. This hypothesis was accepted on the basis of these findings. (6) The seventh hypothesis of the study was that the dropout rate will decrease after the implementation of OB scheme. The results of the study concluded that 70721, 71116, 73769, 46144 and 45801 students were enrolled in I standard in the academic sessions 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1997-98 respectively. Out of these students 20611 (29.14%), 20025 (28.16%) 14418 (31.24%) and 12532 (27.36%) students left the school without completing the primary education. It was also concluded that the drop out rate for the academic session 1995-96 was 22.38% and this parametric statistics for the academic session 2001-02 was 28.14% in Amritsar district. In Punjab the drop out rate in the academic session 1995-96 was 21.74% and 2000-01 this rate was 27.14%. This statistics clearly refuted the hypothesis of the study that the drop out will decrease after the implementation of OB scheme. (7) The eighth hypothesis of the study that 100% GPS included in the sample were lacking in teaching-learning material, such as, textbooks for teachers, teachers’ guide, library books, globe, blocks, strips, toys, games equipment, science kit, maths kit, mini tool kit, dictionaries, music instruments, duster and sufficient number of blackboards. These results supported the hypothesis of the study that teaching-learning material is not being properly used in GPS.