PARAKH turns PRS 2024 learning gaps into monthly district action
PARAKH, the National Assessment Centre under NCERT, has rolled out a nationwide framework of monthly, competency-based teaching and testing to close learning gaps found by PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) 2024. District teams are to pick weak competencies, set monthly targets, teach to them and test students. The plan covers 781 districts in all 36 states and UTs.
Syllabus: Prelims · Economy & Social Development; GS2 · Government Policies; GS2 · Health, Education & Human Resources
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 education: NEP 2020's shift to competency-based assessment and foundational learning. Prelims can ask what PARAKH is and does, the 5+3+3+4 stages and the National Achievement Survey; Mains, how assessment data can raise learning.
Why it matters
A child who falls behind in arithmetic in Class 3 can reach Class 9 and meet percentages without the basics beneath them, and the survey found scores falling at each stage. A survey alone measures such gaps once. Under this plan a teacher gets a short list of skills her district is weak in, teaches them for a month and tests them again, so a slipping class is noticed within weeks instead of years. The larger question is whether India's schools can move from counting how much children learn to raising it, the test of the National Education Policy's promise of learning for all.
Prelims pointers
- NEP 2020 paragraph 4.41: PARAKH is to guide the State Achievement Survey, monitor learning outcomes and advise school boards on new assessment patterns.
- NEP 2020 paragraph 8.10: NAS is to cover government and private schools; States are encouraged to run census-based State Assessment Surveys; NCERT may run NAS until PARAKH is set up.
- NEP 2020 5+3+3+4 design: Foundational (pre-school plus Grades 1-2, ages 3-8), Preparatory (Grades 3-5), Middle (Grades 6-8), Secondary (Grades 9-12).
- NEP 2020 paragraph 4.40: all students are to take school examinations in Grades 3, 5 and 8, used only for developmental purposes.
- NEP 2020 paragraph 2.2: universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary school by 2025 is the education system's highest priority.
- PRS 2024 design: paper-based with OMR technology; Grade 6 tested in Language, Mathematics and The World Around Us, Grade 9 in Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Science.
- PARAKH's large-scale assessments: the National Achievement Survey, the Foundational Learning Study and the State Educational Achievement Survey.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to PARAKH, consider the following statements:
1. It was set up as an independent constituent unit of the National Council of Educational Research and Training in 2023.
2. The National Education Policy 2020 proposed it as a standard-setting body under the University Grants Commission.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer
Answer: (a) 1 only
Answer: (a) 1 only. PARAKH sits in NCERT; NEP 2020 placed it under the education ministry, not the UGC.
Statement 1: correct. PARAKH was set up at NCERT as an independent constituent unit by an NCERT notification dated 8 February 2023.
Statement 2: incorrect. NEP 2020 paragraph 4.41 proposed PARAKH as a standard-setting body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, now the Ministry of Education.
Eliminate: Statement 2 is wrong, since NEP 2020 places PARAKH under the education ministry. Out: (b), (c).
Eliminate: Statement 1 holds, as PARAKH is NCERT's unit of 2023. Out: (d).
Trap: Swapped attribution. A real body is pinned on the wrong parent: the UGC sounds plausible for a national standard-setter, but PARAKH answers to the education ministry through NCERT.
Remember: PARAKH: National Assessment Centre at NCERT, February 2023, NEP 2020 paragraph 4.41.
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