Consultant - National Assessment

Consultant for strengthening national assessment, New Delhi, 1 Month 17 Days, Remote (Open to international candidates).

The consultant will provide independent technical review and advisory support to strengthen the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) as a national, system-level assessment of school education.

The consultant will undertake a desk-based review of relevant PRS/NAS documentation, previous technical recommendations and relevant international assessment practices and prepare a Technical Note on Strengthening PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan. The technical note will cover the following areas:

India has established a national large-scale assessment system through the National Achievement Survey (NAS), which has evolved into the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS).

PRS provides system-level evidence on student learning and is intended to support understanding of the status of learning and areas requiring improvement across the school education system.

The PRS approach includes assessment of student learning alongside contextual information intended to provide insights into factors associated with learning outcomes.

The existing operational framework positions PRS as a standardised, equitable and inclusive national assessment and as a tool for understanding the health and performance of the education system.

UNICEF has supported the strengthening of national assessment and evidence systems in collaboration with PARAKH/NCERT.

While PRS provides important information on learning outcomes, there is an opportunity to strengthen the extent to which the assessment can generate diagnostic and actionable system-level evidence.

In particular, there is value in examining how PRS can better support understanding of:

The assignment therefore requires specialised international expertise in large-scale educational assessment, assessment design and analysis, comparability, inclusive assessment and use of assessment evidence for education system improvement.

The assignment will not involve primary data collection, field visits or implementation of assessment activities.

The assignment will include a desk-based review and the preparation of a Technical Note on Strengthening PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan, with a focus on the areas outlined above and actionable pathways for the Pcycle.