The Education Ministry organised a workshop in New Delhi on Monday with the aim of unifying a network of 60 school examination Boards of various States and Union Territories under one umbrella.

The workshop will study school assessments, examination practices and equivalence of Boards across the country.

The main component of this plan is PARAKH, the National Assessment Centre, which has been set up as an organisation under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

The mandate of PARAKH is to work on bringing the school Boards across States and Union Territories on a common platform.

“As a first step, a workshop on PARAKH will act as a common platform for interaction of all stakeholders concerned in order to develop a holistic approach that ensures a fair assessment system which promotes equity in performance and equivalence in assessment of students,” an official from the Ministry said.

Sanjay Kumar, Secretary (School Education), emphasising the need for equivalence of Boards said that the aim was to establish a unified framework that enables seamless transitions for students moving between different Boards or regions.

The Education Ministry official added that the discussion revolved around the need to reassess the prevailing rote examination culture in the education system.