AICTE aims to open PARAKH portal out to all courses, students

NEW DELHI: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) plans to expand the Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) initiative to students of courses other than engineering, management and master of computer applications as well. This expansion will be funded by the World Bank, through the union government’s MERITE scheme.

PARAKH portal was launched by the ministry of education in 2O22 for all AICTE-approved institutes. It is a self-assessment platform which, according to the regulatory body, helps students identify the gaps in their learning outcomes and improve on it in between courses.

“When we had presented the idea of PARAKH to the World Bank, they had liked the idea. They had asked us to open it to all students in all the areas. They have promised some funding to AICTE to enhance the scheme. Following which we want to take it to the next level,” AICTE member secretary, Rajive Kumar, told Careers360.

The PARAKH portal can be used for self-assessment in branches such as civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics and communication and computer science engineering. In April 2022, AICTE made it mandatory for institutions offering engineering, management and master of computer applications to implement PARAKH.

Apart from the core courses such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, the AICTE PARAKH portal also tests for aptitude, application, core engineering skills and skills in other emerging areas, including robotics, block chain and computing.

Apart from engineering, management and computer applications, the AICTE also regulates programmes in architecture and planning, design, hotel management and undergraduate programmes in management and computer applications as well.

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AICTE PARAKH, MERITE, World Bank

The funding would be provided to the regulatory body through the Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE) scheme. Launched in 2022, the MERITE scheme is aimed at improving technical education.

“It is proposed to be implemented across the country in about 350 government or government-aided engineering institutions and affiliated technical universities,” says the interim budget 2024-25 document about the MERITE scheme.

The scheme has been allocated Rs 200 crore in the 2024-25 interim budget. In the 2023-24 budget, it had seen allocation rise from Rs 2 crore to Rs 100 crore.

“Not only students, even faculty can know the weakness of students. Institute can also know the weakness areas and take remedial measures. Management can also take action. Having said that this portal is also secure in the sense students details are not divulged and secrecy is maintained,” said Kumar.

PARAKH Portal: Numbers

The portal shows that so far, 4,391 institutes are registered with 41,803 faculty and 6,63,996 students. So far, 4,53,746 assessments have been conducted.

There are institutes like the Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, Delhi, where 2,606 students have completed assessment out of the 3,277 assigned. It is mostly the engineering and technology institutes, which have completed the assessments.