Uniform evaluation system for all school boards likely by Nov

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, May 30

In the wake of huge disparity in the results of different school boards and students finding it tough to switch from one board to another, the Union Ministry of Education is planning to have in place by November a common assessment framework for all state board examinations.

The framework would aim to have equivalent evaluation across all state boards. The changes in the evaluation system are part of the new National Education Policy (NEP).

Correcting disparity

• A huge disparity has been seen in the results of school boards of various states, UTs
• As a result, students find it tough to switch from one board to another
• Some students face challenges when they appear for national tests such as CUET, JEE, NEET

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday said all stakeholders, including members of various state education boards, were already on board and their concerns were being addressed. It said a body named ‘Parakh’ had been constituted for bringing the school boards of different states and UTs on a common platform.

“The common assessment framework will be ready by November. It, however, will be up to the states to adopt the changes,” said a ministry official. He said the evaluation patterns of various states were being studied to come up with the common framework.

Education is a subject in the concurrent list and both states and the Centre can legislate on it. “The practice of following different syllabus by various state and UT boards creates barriers for students when they appear for common national-level tests such as the CUET, JEE and the NEET,” said School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar. He stressed the need for standardised question papers to ensure consistency across various boards.

Citing an example, Kumar said, “In Punjab, the Class X pass percentage was 97.8 per cent whereas it stood at 57 per cent in Meghalaya…. Besides, a significant deviation has been seen in the performance of students of different boards in same state. The disparity will be removed once we have a common assessment pattern.”

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