PARAKH rolls out monthly district-level interventions to address learning gaps

PARAKH, the national assessment centre and an independent constituent unit under the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT), has rolled out a nationwide plan for monthly, competency-based teaching and assessments to address learning gaps identified in the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) 2024, moving the focus from measuring student performance to improving it.

The officials of Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development (PARAKH) presented the framework to more than 600 state and district education officials of all states and Union territories during a series of workshops at NCERT’s National Institute of Education (NIE) auditorium in New Delhi from September 18 to 30. The framework, seen by HT, envisages district-level action plans across 781 districts in all 36 states and UTs, with education officials identifying weak competencies, setting monthly learning targets and tracking whether remedial teaching is helping students improve through periodic assessments.

“PRS results act as diagnostic signals, not final judgments,” said Professor Indrani Bhaduri, CEO and head of PARAKH. “The workshops at the national, regional, state, and district levels are being organised to disseminate results, analyse key insights, and develop targeted action plans” to improve learning, she said.

Bhaduri said the district-level workshops would help local functionaries, including teachers, principals and community stakeholders, engage with the findings and develop district-specific interventions. The objective, she said, was “turning national evidence into district-level action for improving learning levels”.

PRS 2024 was conducted on December 4, 2024 and assessed more than 2.1 million students in 74,229 schools across 781 districts, covering Classes 3, 6 and 9—the foundational, preparatory and middle stages, respectively under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It was designed to establish a baseline of students’ conceptual understanding and competency levels. The findings released in July 2025 reveal a sharp decline in academic performance as students transition to higher classes, with average mathematics scores dropping from 60% in Class 3 to a steep 37% by Class 9, where only 28% of students could successfully apply percentages to real-life problems. Language proficiency steadily declines as students get older. Foundational learners in Class 3 scored the highest with a 64% average—marking a minor post-pandemic recovery from 2021—but performance drops to 59% in Class 6 and hits its lowest point at 54% by Class 9, the survey found.

The post-survey exercise is intended to help states and districts use the reports to plan interventions, rather than treat the assessment as a one-time measurement. The framework states that district teams should review the reports, identify competencies requiring attention and draw up action steps, timelines, responsibilities and evidence of progress.

Monthly cycle of teaching and assessment

The centrepiece of the framework presented to education officials during the workshop is a five-step monthly cycle: identify learning gaps; plan interventions; deliver targeted classroom instruction; assess students; and report results.

District academic teams are to select poorly performing competencies across subjects and school stages. Teachers will then focus on these areas through classroom activities, remedial tools and regional-language material, including resources from PARAKH’s Global Activity Bank.

At the end of each month, schools will assess students on selected competencies. The workshop presentation specifies 18 questions for the preparatory stage—six competencies with three questions each—and 30 questions for the middle stage—10 competencies with three questions each. Schools are to submit results through standardised Google Forms circulated by district officials, reporting their average percentage of correct answers for compilation and review by state education authorities and SCERTs.

The framework also calls for using the digital Holistic Progress Card (HPC) to track student development beyond test scores. The portal is designed to capture progress across cognitive, foundational and socio-emotional domains through self-, peer- and teacher assessment.

Short- medium- and long-term measures

In the short term, PARAKH plans to disseminate district reports and identify competencies for priority intervention. The framework flags scores below 50% at the foundational stage, 45% at the preparatory stage and 40% at the middle stage as areas needing attention. State- and district-level master trainers are to explain the findings and demonstrate exemplary pedagogical interventions to local officials, school leaders and community stakeholders.

The medium-term plan includes consolidating an intervention handbook, developing a dynamic item bank and ICT-based learning resources, and linking survey indices with administrative data such as the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE). The framework document says associations between teacher-quality and infrastructure indices and student achievement could inform states’ Annual Work Plans and Budgets (AWP&B), a financial instrument used by states and UTs to propose, approve, and track yearly physical targets and fund allocations by the Union education ministry for schooling initiatives.

Longer-term measures include policy briefs for curriculum review, changes to pre-service teacher education, textbook revisions and online forums for educators.

District education officers are expected to select priority schools, coordinate block officials, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) faculty, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) experts and teachers, monitor classroom implementation and review monthly data. The framework proposes that officials decide whether to continue, modify or intensify interventions—or scale up practices that appear to work.