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Ministry of Education and PARAKH on Monday organised the first National level workshop with states and union territories in New Delhi. The workshop focused on school assessments, examination practises and equivalence of boards across the country.
PARAKH will act as a common platform for the interaction of all concerned stakeholders in order to develop a holistic approach that ensures a fair assessment system which promotes equity in performance and equivalence in the assessment of students. PARAKH stands for Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development. As per the Ministry of Education, PARAKH has been set up as the organisation under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). It will work on bringing the school boards across the States and the Union Territories on a common platform. The workshop was chaired by Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy and attended by officials from the Ministry of Education, CBSE, NCERT, NIOS, NCVET and NCTE. State education secretaries, state project directors of schools, SCERT and officials from state examination boards across India also attended the meeting. While addressing the participants, Sanjay Kumar emphasized the need for the equivalence of boards. In India, currently, there are around 60 school examination boards that are operating in different states/UTs. The aim is to establish a unified framework that enables seamless transitions for students moving between different boards or regions. This includes aligning curriculum standards, grading systems, and evaluation methodologies to enhance the credibility, recognition of certificates, and grades obtained across boards, he added. The workshop focused on a discussion on equivalence across educational boards. Multiple stakeholders were informed regarding the conception of PARAKH. The discussion revolved around reassessing the prevailing rote examination culture in our education system. There is a growing realization that holistic assessments, encompassing various dimensions of a student's abilities and potential, are equally important. Further, the discussion emphasized the need for well-designed and standardized question papers, ensuring fairness and consistency across schools and boards. Additionally, there is a call to strike a balance between formative and summative assessments, reducing the burden of high-stakes examinations while effectively measuring a student's progress. An analysis of examination results of secondary and higher secondary boards was also presented. (ANI)
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