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Education News



           DELHI                                                           any weightage to the class XII board
         Promising PARAKH                                                  exam scores. “CUET has severely

                                                                           devalued the high school education
                                                                           system. With CUET scores being the
                                                                           be all and end all for college admis-
                                                                           sions, higher secondary students
                                                                           may well abandon schools and
                                                                           flock to coaching centres to prep for
                                                                           CUET,” says Acharya, also principal
                                                                           of the CBSE-affiliated ITL Public
                                                                           School, Dwarka, Delhi.
                                                                             Therefore, on the recommenda-
                                                                           tion of the Dr. K. Kasturirangan
                                                                           Committee’s report, the National
                                                                           Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has
                                                                           mandated the PARAKH (Perfor-
                                                                           mance, Assessment, Review &
                                                                           Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic
                                                                           Development) programme to set and
                                                                           regulate common syllabuses and
                                                                           curriculums for all 69 examination
         CBSE school-leavers writing final exam:  grades inflation hurdle next  boards to ensure equivalence of chil-
                                                                           dren’s learning outcomes country-
                  ith the two national    do likewise. Hence grades inflation   wide. According to NCERT sources,
                  school examination      has become a national practice with   finalisation of the PARAKH template
         Wboards — the Central            schools (and test-prep firms) trum-  is nearing completion and parity or
         Board of Secondary Education     peting the 95 percent-plus average   near-equivalence between all exam
         (CBSE, 28,926 affiliated schools)   scores of their students.     boards will become a reality by 2026.
         and Council for the Indian School   In turn, this has prompted the   Simultaneously, the two national
         Certificate Examinations (CISCE,   country’s top-ranked colleges to   boards — CBSE and CISCE whose
         2,700 schools) — and 69 state boards   notify impossibly high — sometimes   affiliated higher secondary schools
         scheduled to stage their school-  100 percent — admission cut-offs.   could be reduced to irrelevance by
         leaving examinations within the next   To get around the problem of school   India’s Rs.20,000 crore test-prep
         four months, exam fever has broken   board exams equivalence, in 2022,   aka coaching industry — are in the
         out across the country.          the University Grants Commission   process of ringing in syllabus/curric-
            The peaceful co-existence of such   introduced CUET (Common Univer-  ulum and assessment reforms to take
         a large number of school-leaving   sity Entrance Test) to determine ad-  on the test-prep industry by switch-
         exam boards prescribing differing   mission into colleges affiliated with   ing from rewarding rote learning and
         syllabuses and curriculums and prac-  56 Central government universities.   memorisation skills to developing
         tising liberal and rigorous marking   Since then, several state government   children’s comprehension, thinking
         of exam papers has always posed a   and private universities have also   and knowledge application skills
         problem for the admission depart-  started admitting school-leavers on   which will henceforth be rewarded
         ments of the country’s 42,000 junior   the basis of CUET scores.   by exam boards.
         (classes XI-XII) and undergrad col-  However, the hurried introduc-  “It’s a misconception that the
         leges countrywide.               tion of CUET in 2022 has endan-  introduction of CUET has rendered
            For several decades under a   gered the country’s secondary    school leaving exams irrelevant.
         Central government directive Central   education system and the class XII   CBSE has already notified that
         government and aided colleges are   examinations of national and state   henceforth it will be assessing the
         obliged to give equivalence to marks/  boards, in particular.     critical thinking, problem solving
         grades attained by students in class   Sudha Acharya, former chair-  and knowledge application skills of
         XII exams countrywide. Yet it’s an   person of the Delhi-based National   students writing the class X and XII
         open secret that some state boards   Progressive Schools’ Conference   board exams. This will not only pre-
         mark answer papers very liberally.   (NPSC) which has a membership   pare school children for CUET but
         This has prompted even national   of 400 private CBSE schools, is   also international tests such as PISA.
         boards — CBSE and CISCE — to     opposed to CUET for not according   Very soon schools will be able to

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