Ask states to implement exam reforms, NCERT urges Centre

New Delhi: Weeks after it introduced a new evaluation system with different weightage methods, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has written to the Ministry of Education urging it to write to state governments to implement the recommendations of the reforms, which have been laid down in consonance with the National Education Policy.

Some of these reforms include removing board exams in the 9, 10 and 11 standards so that the marks obtained there are used to evaluate the results in the 12th standard.

Amidst the tug-of-war between states ruled by the Opposition parties and the Centre, there are some of the state boards that are open to implementing these reforms, but they need a notification from the state government. To this end, the Centre will have to write to the state issuing the notification, the NCERT has written in its letter.

The report, titled ‘Establishing Equivalence across Education Boards’, was submitted by PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), a regulatory body under the NCERT.

Among the recommendations is that state boards divide the academic year into two terms, and that the “weightage of formative and summative” marks will be adjusted progressively from class 9 to class 12, with increasing emphasis on summative assessment.

For the class 12 report, 15 per cent for class 9, 20per cent for class 10, 25 per cent for class 11, and 40 per cent for class 12 will be added for the evaluation in class 12.

The PARAKH report also pointed at variation in performance of students not only across state boards, but even within the boards. In all, there are 59 school boards for senior and senior secondary education countrywide, including three national-level boards like the CBSE and ICSE.

The NCERT’s letter comes even as the Ministry of Education and the Tamil Nadu government is in the midst of a confrontation over the implementation of the recommendations of the NEP.

Many Opposition-ruled states have refused to implement the NEP, including Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal. A report has since emerged that the Centre has withheld funds to these states despite better parameters. Consequently, Delhi and Punjab agreed to implement them.