NCERT Urges Ministry of Education to Enforce New Evaluation Reforms Amid State Resistance
Weeks after introducing a new evaluation system with revised weightage methods, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has urged the Ministry of Education to direct state governments to implement these reforms, which align with the National Education Policy (NEP).
The reforms include the elimination of board exams for standards 9, 10, and 11, with the grades from these years contributing to the evaluation for the 12th standard. Some state boards are open to adopting these changes but require a notification from their state governments. To facilitate this, the Centre will need to issue a notification to the states, according to a letter from the NCERT. This letter was accompanied by a report titled ‘Establishing Equivalence across Education Boards,’ submitted by PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), a regulatory body under the NCERT.
The report recommends that state boards split the academic year into two terms and progressively adjust the weightage of formative and summative assessments from class 9 to class 12, with increasing emphasis on summative assessment. Specifically, for the class 12 evaluation, the report proposes that 15% of the marks come from class 9, 20% from class 10, 25% from class 11, and 40% from class 12.
PARAKH's report also highlights discrepancies in student performance not only across different state boards but even within the same board. Currently, there are 59 school boards for senior and senior secondary education across the country, including three national-level boards: CBSE, ICSE, and one more.
The NCERT’s request comes amid ongoing tensions between the Ministry of Education and the Tamil Nadu government over the implementation of NEP recommendations. Many states governed by Opposition parties, such as Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, and West Bengal, have resisted implementing the NEP. Reports suggest that the Centre has withheld funds from these states despite their performance metrics, leading Delhi and Punjab to agree to implement the NEP recommendations.
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