New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) The National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP 2020) does not propose to merge or unify all School Boards into a single national Board, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.

Replying to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary said, “The policy recommends a common 5+3+3+4 structure to replace the earlier 10+2 format across all Boards.”

“The NEP 2020 does not propose to merge or unify all School Boards into a single national Board,” he said.

He said the policy has suggested the common structure for ensuring developmental appropriateness and curricular consistency nationwide, while allowing existing Boards to continue functioning within their respective jurisdictions.

Chaudhary said the Ministry of Education has notified the National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) as the national body for setting norms and guidelines for student assessment and strengthening the quality of school assessments in the country.

The MoS was giving a written reply to a question raised by Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee.

Chaudhary said PARAKH was set up on February 8, 2023, to fulfil the objectives of setting norms, standards, guidelines and implement activities related to student assessment.

He said that PARAKH has been entrusted with the responsibility of granting Equivalence to Class X and Class XII certificates issued by School Boards across the country.

The Equivalence of Boards initiative, led by PARAKH, seeks to harmonise academic expectations, improve comparability of learning standards and enhance the credibility of Board examinations while respecting the diversity and autonomy of more than 60 School Boards.

While sharing details of CSR initiatives of local Public Sector Undertakings related to welfare projects and curriculum training to teacher, the MoS said that government schools across the country are registered on the Vidyanjali portal that facilitates community and CSR engagement in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Schools independently assess and upload their specific requirements whether for services or assets on the portal. These requests are publicly visible to all registered contributors in the public domain and participation remains entirely demand-driven at the school level, said Chaudhary.

He also highlighted Vidyanjali, a school volunteer management programme to strengthen government and government-aided schools through community and private sector involvement across the country.

From Vidyanjali’s inception on September 7, 2021, more than 8.33 lakh government and government-aided schools have onboarded 5.54 lakh volunteers and 2,365 CSR/NGOs, he said.

–IANS

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