HPC at Secondary Stage

• 2025-10-13 12:00:00

• PARAKH NCERT

• By PARAKH

Reimagining Assessment in the Secondary Stage: The Holistic Progress Card by PARAKH, NCERT

As learners step into the Secondary Stage (Grades IX and X), they enter a phase of deep inquiry, identity consolidation, and future readiness. This stage bridges adolescence with emerging adulthood, where academic rigor meets personal aspiration. In alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE 2023), and the National Credit Framework (NCrF), PARAKH, NCERT introduces the Holistic Progress Card (HPC) for the Secondary Stage—a transformative tool that honors the learner’s journey with dignity, depth, and direction.

🧠 From Mastery to Meaning: Capturing Complex Growth

The Secondary Stage HPC moves beyond traditional grading to embrace a competency-based, multidimensional narrative. It documents progress across disciplinary understanding, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, emotional intelligence, and civic engagement. Adolescents at this stage are not just preparing for exams—they are shaping their worldview, values, and voice. Teachers are encouraged to use dialogic feedback, performance tasks, reflective journals, and peer/self-assessments to illuminate this rich tapestry of learning.

🛠️ Vocational Education and Futures Literacy

In keeping with NEP 2020’s emphasis on experiential learning and career readiness, vocational education becomes a vital strand of the Secondary Stage HPC. Learners engage with hands-on modules, skill-based projects, and local industry exposure across domains such as agriculture, IT, design, and entrepreneurship. These experiences are documented through portfolios, mentor feedback, and learner reflections, highlighting competencies like craftsmanship, digital fluency, financial literacy, and workplace ethics. The HPC thus becomes a bridge between school and livelihood, helping learners discover pathways that align with their interests and strengths.

🧩 Equity, Agency, and Personalization

The HPC supports inclusive education by capturing differentiated pathways, learner accommodations, and strengths across diverse contexts. It empowers educators to use rubrics and templates that balance academic precision with emotional nuance. Feedback is designed to be affirming, forward-looking, and learner-owned—enabling adolescents to reflect, recalibrate, and rise.

🌐 A Systemic Shift Toward Human Potential

For educators, the Secondary Stage HPC is a blueprint for responsive pedagogy. For policymakers, it signals a commitment to equity, excellence, and empowerment. And for learners, it is a living document—chronicling their evolution as thinkers, creators, and citizens.

In reimagining assessment, the HPC invites us to see every adolescent not as a test score, but as a future-ready individual, capable of shaping a just, joyful, and sustainable world. It’s not just progress, it’s purpose in motion