27,559 students of 1,215 schools to take performance appraisal exam
As many as 27,559 students from about 1,215 schools (589 of state government, 505 private and 113 of Central government) have been selected for the Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) Rashtriya Sarvekshan exam to be conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in collaboration with the Samagra Shiksha and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on December 4.
Director, Samagra Shiksha, Rakesh Sharma, while addressing mediapersons here today, said that the exam would be conducted in Himachal Pradesh to assess the learning capabilities of students. “The participating schools have been selected randomly,” he added.
Sharma said, “The state Education Department, under the Samagra Shiksha programme, has made all necessary preparations for the survey. To ensure transparency, the Samagra Shiksha team is taking all necessary steps. The survey will not be conducted in the presence of schoolteachers and 1,367 JBT (Junior Basic Trained) trainee invigilators will be appointed to oversee the process. These invigilators will be assigned duties in various schools. Besides, 1,215 CBSE supervisors will also be deployed, with one supervisor assigned to each school.”
He added, “As many as 7,715 students from Class III, 8,881 students from Class VI and 10,963 students from Class IX will participate in the survey, which will begin at 11 am in all participating schools.”
Sharma said that all selected schools had been inspected to ensure these were equipped with necessary facilities and guidelines had been issued to the teachers.
He added, “The survey will include a maximum of 30 students from each class, though in cases where there are fewer than five students in a class, it will not be surveyed. The exam will be conducted using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets. Students from Class III and Class VI will be assessed in language, mathematics and environmental science, while Class IX students will be tested in language, mathematics, science and social studies.”
He said that the state government was "focused on ensuring that Himachal Pradesh performs well in the exam. Education Minister Rohit Thakur is personally monitoring the preparations. He has held video conferences with teachers of both government and private schools to review the survey''s readiness". "Students have been practising for the survey during zero hour sessions in schools and the Vidya Samiksha Kendra has uploaded sample question papers related to the survey on the practice portal. Schools have been provided access to this portal for students'' practice,” he added.
He said that three mock tests were conducted to assess the students'' readiness. He added that the state government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Education Minister Rohit Thakur, was focused on improving the quality of education. "Significant efforts have been made over the past two years to enhance the quality of education and the results of these efforts are likely to be reflected in this exam," he claimed.
