The Union government move to implement PARAKH (Performance Assessment Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), a national assessment regulator, will push the public education sector into danger academically, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.
In a statement here on Tuesday, the Minister said there were reports that as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, the Union government had decided to bring in uniformity in assessment. There were indications that the Union Education Ministry’s PARAKH had started working towards this objective.
Such changes seemed part of the academic centralisation envisaged under the NEP. Kerala, and other States, had pointed out even when the NEP was being formulated that centralisation, particularly related to academics, in the school education sector could not be justified, and that these had non-academic objectives.
This attempt at centralisation threatened the fundamental perspectives on education and was a setback to Kerala’s efforts to provide quality education.
In a land rich with diversity, be it geography, food, language, or climate, an assessment with the same conditions for all children was unscientific, and would lead to a large chunk of students being removed from the mainstream.
Only teachers who taught the students would know their strengths and weaknesses through continuous assessment, the Minister said. Assessment should help identify students’ strengths and improve them as well as provide support to overcome the limitations.
Centralised assessments would lead to long-term setbacks. Hence, States should be strengthened. Following federal principles and steps in keeping with ideals put forward by modern education principles should be taken at the national level, the Minister said.
