NCERT gets ETS on board to establish India's first national assessment regulator 'PARAKH'

NEW DELHI: The NCERT has partnered with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) which conducts TOEFL and GRE tests, for setting up India's first national assessment regulator - PARAKH. The National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) notified "PARAKH" last month. The Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) will work on setting norms, standards and guidelines for student assessment and evaluation for all recognised school boards in the country.

The regulator will set up assessment guidelines for all boards to help remove disparities in scores of students enrolled with different state boards, a reform outlined in the new National Education Policy (NEP), 2022.

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"NCERT on behalf of Ministry of Education, is in the process of setting up PARAKH, as mandated by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and is delighted to have ETS as the technical partner in this endeavour," said Indrani Bhaduri, Professor and Head of the Educational Survey Division, NCERT.

"Their understanding of global best practices in curriculum and assessment will be a great asset in standardising these aspects across the various school boards in the country thereby paving the path towards quality, consistency and uniformity in the teaching-learning and assessment practices. "We at NCERT are enthused to partner with ETS and deploy their considerable expertise in educational research in learning assessments and intend to capitalise the same for the betterment of all aspects of school education, benefiting the learners, teachers and educational delivery system in this country," she said.

ETS develops, administers and scores tens of millions of tests annually - including the TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE tests and The Praxis Series assessments - in more than 200 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.

"The PARAKH initiative will serve as a global model for how to build world-class assessment and learning systems to deliver high-quality student outcomes, advance education and improve millions of lives," said Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS. "We look forward to work with NCERT in building the future of learning through innovation and quality assessment expertise to measure what matters most as India becomes a powerhouse in global education," he added.