PARAKH | National Educational Policy Implementation

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Context:

A report submitted to the Union Education Ministry suggests that a student’s performance in Classes 9th, 10th, and 11th should be considered when awarding final marks in Class 12th.

About the proposal

The proposal was put forth by PARAKH, a unit in NCERT aimed at standardising assessment by school boards across the country.
PARAKH submitted its report earlier this month recommending measures for evaluation after discussions with 32 school boards over the past year.

PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development)

●The national assessment regulator, PARAKH was set up in NCERT on February 8, 2024, as an independent constituent unit to fulfil the basic objectives of setting norms, standards, and guidelines and implementing activities related to student assessment, along with other tasks as mandated in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

There are four major areas of focus for PARAKH:

Capacity Development in Competency Based Assessment
Large-Scale Achievement Survey
Equivalence of School Boards
Holistic Progress Cards for the Foundational, Preparational, Middle and Secondary Stages.

The activities undertaken under PARAKH include:

1. Capacity Development in Competency Based Assessment

●Project Vidyasagar – PARAKH in collaboration with PhD Chamber of Commerce (PhDCC) is organising a series of workshops in all the States/UTs of India for the Dissemination of Learning Competencies at Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary Levels as per National Curriculum Framework 2023 (NCF, 2023).

●The aim of this exercise is to familiarise the teacher educators and teachers with the pedagogical and policy changes that have been introduced with the NCF 2023 in order to ensure that the gaps in the implementation of competency-based learning-teaching are bridged

2. Large-Scale Achievement Survey

●PARAKH, has been mandated to organise large-scale achievement surveys to periodically monitor and assess the education of the country.

●PARAKH worked with States/UTs in conducting the State Educational Achievement Survey on November 3, 2023, assessing learners from Grades 3, 6, and 9 to gauge competencies in Foundational Literacy, Foundational Numeracy, Language, and Mathematics at the end of foundational, preparatory, and middle stages with educational blocks as the units of assessment.

●Administered in 30 States/UTs, the assessment covered an approximate sample of 8 million learners.

3. Equivalence of School Boards

●PARAKH is working with boards of school education to develop recommendations pertaining to examination reforms.

●Once equivalence is brought across all Boards of India, it will be possible to allocate credit points to all forms of learning, be it academic, vocational, or experiential.

4. Holistic Progress Cards for the Foundational, Preparational, Middle and Secondary Stages.

●Development and Dissemination of the Holistic Progress Card for Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary stages, a 360-degree Holistic Progress Card has been developed in order to aid assessment of Competency-Based learning-teaching by making assessments more comprehensive and holistic in nature.

●PARAKH has completed the development of the Holistic Progress Cards (HPC) for the foundational, preparatory, and middle stages.

●Currently, efforts are underway to develop the HPC for the secondary stage to ensure competency-based and holistic assessments.

Read about PARAKH in detail here:

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/parakh-31

Key recommendations of the report

Performance in the three classes should be evaluated based on examination and continuing classwork in the Class 12th report cards.
Include performance from Classes 9th, 10th, and 11th in the final Class 12th report card of students.

Weightage

A weight of 15 per cent be fixed for Class 9th,
20 per cent for Class 10th,
25 per cent for Class 11th, and
40 per cent for Class 12th to evaluate the final performance.

Assessment criteria

In Class 9th, for example, 70 percent of the final score should be calculated from formative assessments and 30 per cent from summative assessments.
In Class 10th, the final score should be based 50 per cent on formative assessments and 50 per cent on summative assessments.
For Class 11th, the report suggests, it should be 40 per cent formative and 60 per cent summative assessments.
In Class 12th, the weight for formative assessments should be 30 per cent with 70 per cent of the final score based on summative assessments.
Assessments should be in terms of credits. “A student can earn 40 credits in Classes 9th and 10th each, and 44 credits in Classes 11th and 12th each.

Formative assessments

●These assessments can be quizzes or tests that evaluate how students are learning material as they go along.

●They can help instructors identify misconceptions, learning gaps, and struggles, and provide opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance.

●Formative assessments can also help instructors collect information to provide targeted feedback and instruction.

●Formative assessments are often low stakes and may not carry a grade, which can sometimes discourage students from engaging with them.

Summative assessments

●Summative assessments evaluate student learning, knowledge, proficiency, or success at the conclusion of an instructional period, like a unit, course, or program.

●These assessments can also be quizzes or tests that evaluate how much students have learned at the end of a course or program.

●They compare student learning against a standard or benchmark to evaluate knowledge, proficiency, or success.

● Summative assessments provide an overall assessment score or grade that reflects the student's understanding of the subject matter and can also indicate how prepared they are to move on to the next academic level.

Important articles for reference :

Holistic Progress Card

Sources: https://www.livemint.com/education/news/include-class-9-11-performance-for-class-12-results-says-a-govt-proposal-on-student-assessment-report-11722218732583.html

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. Consider the following statements about the “PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development)”:

It is a national assessment regulator set up in NCERT.
Under Project Vidyasagar, PARAKH in collaboration with PhD Chamber of Commerce (PhDCC) grants scholarships to meritorious students.
In its recent recommendation, it has asked the Union Government to prepare class 12th grade cards using Summative assessments only instead of formative assessments.

How many of the above statements is/are correct?

A.Only one

B.Only two

C.All three

D None

Answer: A