PRAYAGRAJ, Oct. 12 -- The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UP Board) has set up a Parakh (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) cell at its headquarters in Prayagraj. The move aims to improve assessment practices in line with the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 and ensure that the Board's evaluation standards are equivalent to those followed by other school education boards across the country. The cell will focus on strengthening the state's internal assessment capabilities and reducing dependence on external training. It will also work to ensure continuity, relevance and impartiality in evaluation methods, UP Board secretary Bhagwati Singh said. Explaining the objectives and functions of the cell, UP Board additional secretary Skand Shukla said it would organise capacity-building and training programmes for paper setters, resource persons, evaluators, teachers and academic staff. These programmes will help standardise the evaluation system in secondary schools affiliated with the UP Board. The cell will also develop competency-based question papers, rubrics and scoring guides. In addition, it will prepare question banks and teaching-learning materials in line with expected learning outcomes. The initiative aims to improve the validity, reliability and transparency of the assessment process, Shukla said. Officials said the cell would also help implement the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023. It will do so by adopting the Parakh Taxonomy, the assessment guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023, and Holistic Progress Cards (HPC). The curriculum framework will be adapted to meet the specific needs and curriculum requirements of Uttar Pradesh. The Parakh cell will serve as a nodal point for coordination between PARAKH, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), and other educational institutions, officials added. The UPMSP secretary will head the cell, while the additional secretary (research) has been appointed as its nodal officer. The deputy secretary (research) will serve as the Parakh coordinator. Other members of the cell will include officials from the UPMSP, the State Council of Educational Research and Training, and academic and educational bodies such as SIEMAT and Samgra Shiksha Madhyamik....