Today was yet another red-letter day for the fraternity of education, with the DoSEL organizing a Theme Session on “Equivalence of Curriculum and Assessment across all School Boards” at the Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam. It is marking the 4th anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which has been a milestone change in the transformation of India’s educational landscape.

The sitting was attended by erudite panelists, exam boards, and leading assessment experts for holding detailed discussions on important matters concerning competency-based assessment, currently at the core of NEP 2020. Elicited was the concept of academic equivalence among schools, more importantly, the much-needed requirement for uniformity and standardization across different school boards in India. The importance of this environmentally inconsistent alignment of efforts is to assure an education that is consistent, high quality, and rigorous for students, regardless of the school board they happen to be in.

Much of the discussion was oriented towards the need for collaboration amongst various school boards. The panellists were unanimous in pointing out that it will bring about more uniformity in the educational system as good practices are shared and the student benefits from an integration approach toward learning and evaluation. They also discussed at length the potential of digital platforms in making the sea change that is due in the methodology of assessments to make them more efficient, transparent, and accessible.

The Secretary, DoSEL presented on the role that PARAKH was expected to play: Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development is a unified national-level platform for assessments in compliance with the aims enshrined in the NEP 2020. This will be putting in place a common framework for these assessments to ensure an approach that is more even and fair throughout the country.

Beyond the domestic perspectives, the session also looked out for views that are truly international, bringing out whether a view provided a global perspective, offered valuable insights into how other countries were coping with similar challenges, and potential models and strategies that India could adopt.

These also pointed toward the importance of policy alignment and policy advocacy for NEP 2020 at every step. For alignment of policy, the policy should be able to outline the operation and structure of policies being applied at every level within the education system. An extremely important step here is that of advocacy to ensure all stakeholders—educators, parents, and policymakers—can be engaged in the changes being proposed by NEP 2020.

Above all, the thematic session presented a view at the Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam showing progress made during the last four years since the introduction of NEP 2020; it further laid down the future initiatives that need to be taken, to ensure greater equivalence and coherence in India’s educational system in a manner that enriches and allows for a stronger and fair learning environment for all its students.