PARAKH: Govt plans cadre to set Board question papers for parity in assessment

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What is PARAKH?
• News Summary Regarding Cadre at the State Level

Why in News?

The Union government plans to form in each state a cadre of dedicated professionals on the same lines of the newly set-up body PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development).

This cadre will be drawn from the existing pool of teachers and academics in schools engaged with the SCERTs, to set question papers of board exams and develop standard marking schemes.

What is PARAKH?

• Background:
  • The National Education Policy 2020 proposed of developing a benchmark framework to ensure consistency between state and central boards
  • As a result, the Union Ministry of Education recently invited bids to establish a regulator – PARAKH.
• About PARAKH:
  • The benchmark assessment framework – PARAKH – functions as a standard-setting body for student assessment and evaluation for all school boards in the country and to put an end to the emphasis on rote learning.
  • While the NCERT is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education, the regulator – PARAKH – will act as a constituent unit of the NCERT and will be tasked with –
    • Setting norms, standards and guidelines for student assessment and evaluation.
    • Holding periodic learning outcome tests like the National Achievement Survey (NAS), etc.
    • Managing India’s participation in international assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), etc.
  • It will consist of leading assessment experts and will eventually become the national single-window source for all assessment-related information and expertise.
• Significance:
  • Uniformity:  To bring “equivalence” in assessment.
  • Standardisation: It will establish and implement technical standards for test design, administration, analysis and reporting at all levels of schooling.
  • Skill development: It will encourage and help school boards to shift their assessment patterns towards meeting the skill requirements of the 21st century.

Image Caption: PARAKH – The New Regulator

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News Summary Regarding Cadre at the State Level:

• Just like the NCERT at the national level, the SCERTs, which come under the state governments, are engaged in developing curriculum, manuals for teachers and evaluation and assessment at the school education level.
• The plan is to have a dedicated cadre in every state for setting question papers and developing the standard rubric for marking.
• The rubric will define which types of answers merit a certain score.
• The cadre will be trained for this purpose of developing higher order thinking skills questions as opposed to the current model where teachers with some years of experience are thought to be ready to set question papers.

Q1) What is the National Achievement Survey (NAS)?

NAS is a nationally representative large-scale survey of students’ learning undertaken by the Ministry of Education. NAS gives a system level reflection on effectiveness of school education.

Q2) What is the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)?

It is a worldwide study by the OECD in member and non-member nations intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading.

Source: Govt plans cadre to set Board question papers for parity in assessment | IE