Prayagraj: UP Board authorities will set up a special cell named Parakh to overhaul its assessment system in line with the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 and bring greater uniformity in evaluation standards with other boards in the country.The cell is expected to influence the assessment and learning practices of more than 1 crore students studying up to Class 12 in over 29,000 schools affiliated with UP Board. It will focus on making evaluation more competency-based, transparent and aligned with learning outcomes, while also strengthening the state’s own capacity to conduct assessment-related training and reduce dependence on external agencies.Parakh cell will also work towards adopting the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) according to the requirements of Uttar Pradesh. It will function as a nodal platform for coordination between the UP Board, NCERT, SCERT and other academic institutions involved in school education.UP Board additional secretary (research) Skand Shukla said: “The cell would organise capacity-building programmes for question paper setters, resource persons, evaluators, teachers and other academic staff. The training will aim at standardising assessment practices across secondary schools and improving the validity, reliability and transparency of the evaluation process.”Moreover, the cell will prepare competency-based question papers, develop rubrics and scoring guides and create question banks and learning material mapped to prescribed learning outcomes. It will also work on introducing multidimensional progress cards to provide a broader assessment of students’ academic development.The 12-member cell will be headed by UP Board secretary Bhagwati Singh, while the additional secretary (research) will be its nodal officer. The deputy secretary (research) has been designated as coordinator.Representatives of the UP Board, SCERT and other academic and education-related institutions will be part of the cell. Officials from SIEMAT, CIEMAT and Samagra Shiksha Madhyamik have also been included.Singh said the cell would focus on strengthening the state’s internal assessment capabilities, reducing dependence on external training and ensuring consistency, fairness and transparency in the evaluation process.
