PARAKH, the national assessment centre and an independent constituent unit under the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT), has rolled out a nationwide plan for monthly, competency-based teaching and assessments to address learning gaps identified in the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) 2024, moving the focus from measuring student performance to improving it.
It was designed to establish a baseline of students’ conceptual understanding and competency levels. Language proficiency steadily declines as students get older. Monthly cycle of teaching and assessment The centrepiece of the framework presented to education officials during the workshop is a five-step monthly cycle: identify learning gaps; plan interventions; deliver targeted classroom instruction; assess students; and report results.
The officials of Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) presented the framework to more than 600 state and district education officials of all states and Union territories during a series of workshops at NCERT’s National Institute of Education (NIE) auditorium in New Delhi from September 18 to 30. The framework, seen by HT, envisages district-level action plans across 781 districts in all 36 states and UTs, with education officials identifying weak competencies, setting monthly learning targets and tracking whether remedial teaching is helping students improve through periodic assessments. PRS 2024 was conducted on December 4, 2024 and assessed more than 2.1 million students in 74,229 schools across 781 districts, covering Classes 3, 6 and 9—the foundational, preparatory and middle stages, respectively under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The findings released in July 2025 reveal a sharp decline in academic performance as students transition to higher classes, with average mathematics scores dropping from 60% in Class 3 to a steep 37% by Class 9, where only 28% of students could successfully apply percentages to real-life problems. Foundational learners in Class 3 scored the highest with a 64% average—marking a minor post-pandemic recovery from 2021—but performance drops to 59% in Class 6 and hits its lowest point at 54% by Class 9, the survey found.
The framework flags scores below 50% at the foundational stage, 45% at the preparatory stage and 40% at the middle stage as areas needing attention. District academic teams are to select poorly performing competencies across subjects and school stages. Teachers will then focus on these areas through classroom activities, remedial tools and regional-language material, including resources from PARAKH’s Global Activity Bank. The framework also calls for using the digital Holistic Progress Card (HPC) to track student development beyond test scores. The portal is designed to capture progress across cognitive, foundational and socio-emotional domains through self-, peer- and teacher assessment. In the short term, PARAKH plans to disseminate district reports and identify competencies for priority intervention. State- and district-level master trainers are to explain the findings and demonstrate exemplary pedagogical interventions to local officials, school leaders and community stakeholders.
