Marks, Mastery, and Merit: India’s Uneven Journey Toward Competency-Based Learning

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” —Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist)

For generations of Indian students, success in school meant one thing: memorizing textbooks well enough to reproduce answers in an examination hall. Marks, ranks, and percentages defined merit, while understanding, creativity, and curiosity often took a back seat.

This deeply entrenched culture of rote learning is now facing its biggest challenge yet. Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, India’s school education system is being asked to pivot toward competency-based learning, a model that prioritizes conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and real-world application over recall.

Around five years into the policy’s rollout, the shift is visible but uneven. Classrooms, assessments, report cards, and teacher training frameworks are all in flux, raising important questions about how far schools have come and how much further they need to go.

Learning in Ancient India: Understanding Before Examinations

Ironically, the idea of competency-based learning is not new to the Indian subcontinent. Ancient systems of education, particularly the gurukul tradition, emphasized mastery through lived experience rather than written examinations.

Students learned philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, warfare, and ethics through dialogue, observation, debate, and practice under the guidance of a teacher, or “The Guru.”

Knowledge was assessed informally, through a student’s ability to apply learning in daily life, teach others, or demonstrate skill and judgement. There were no standardized exams, rankings, or marksheets. Education was deeply contextual, holistic, and closely linked to social and professional life.

Over time, particularly during the colonial period, this approach was replaced by a formalized, examination-driven system designed to produce clerks and administrators. Memorization, uniform curricula, and written testing became central to schooling. What was once learning for understanding gradually evolved into learning for assessment.

NEP 2020, in many ways, attempts to reconnect modern schooling with this older philosophy while adapting it to contemporary classrooms, scale, and accountability.

From Memorization to Mastery

Competency-based learning is built on a simple idea: students should be evaluated on what they can do with what they know. Instead of testing how accurately a child can reproduce definitions or solved examples, the focus moves to applying concepts in unfamiliar situations, analyzing information, solving problems, and communicating ideas clearly.

NEP 2020 formally recognizes this approach, calling for a “paradigm shift” from content-heavy syllabi and high-stakes summative exams to continuous, formative assessment.

Learning outcomes are framed in terms of competencies such as logical reasoning, creativity, collaboration, and ethical understanding. In theory, this represents a fundamental break from India’s exam-centric tradition.

The Policy Push Behind the Change

NEP 2020 mandates several structural reforms to support competency-based education. These include reducing curriculum load, integrating subjects, and aligning teaching, learning, and assessment practices. The policy also emphasizes experiential learning through projects, discussions, fieldwork, and real-life case studies.

Education boards have responded with varying degrees of urgency. CBSE has steadily increased the proportion of competency-based questions in its board exams, introducing case-study formats and application-oriented multiple-choice questions.

ICSE has similarly revised assessment patterns, while many state boards have begun pilot initiatives to redesign question papers and teacher handbooks.

However, the policy also acknowledges a central challenge: unless assessments change meaningfully, classroom practices will remain largely unchanged. For a system conditioned to “teach to the test,” exams still hold enormous power.

How Exams Are Being Redefined

One of the most visible outcomes of the shift is the gradual transformation of school examinations. Traditional questions that reward direct recall are being replaced with those that require interpretation, reasoning, and multi-step problem-solving.

Case-based questions present students with short scenarios drawn from everyday life, asking them to apply concepts across subjects. Open-ended questions allow for multiple correct approaches rather than one fixed answer. Internal assessments now carry greater weight, encouraging teachers to evaluate learning over time rather than through a single annual test.

Despite these changes, implementation remains inconsistent. While some schools design assessments that genuinely test understanding, others simply repackage old questions in new formats.

Students often report confusion during the transition, especially in senior classes where board results continue to play a decisive role in college admissions.

What Students Think: Exams vs Life and Careers

While policy debates often focus on pedagogy and assessment, students themselves hold sharply divided views on competency-based learning, largely shaped by their stage of schooling and career aspirations.

Younger students and those in middle school tend to view the shift positively. Many say project work, discussions, and application-based questions make learning more engaging and reduce the pressure of memorization.

Senior students, however, are more cautious. For those preparing for board exams and competitive entrance tests, marks and ranks still dominate priorities.

There is also a growing perception among students that schools are preparing them for two parallel futures, one focused on life skills and careers and the other narrowly focused on exams.

While many acknowledge that critical thinking and communication will matter in the long run, immediate academic outcomes often take precedence in a highly competitive education ecosystem.

The New Report Card: Beyond Marks

Perhaps the most symbolic change under competency-based learning is the evolving nature of report cards. NEP 2020 recommends replacing marks-centric evaluation with holistic progress cards that provide a broader picture of a child’s development.

These new formats assess subject-wise competencies alongside life skills, socio-emotional learning, attendance, participation, and work habits. Qualitative teacher feedback is meant to offer insight into strengths and areas for improvement, shifting the conversation from “How much did you score?” to “What have you learned?”

For parents accustomed to percentages and ranks, this transition can be disorienting. Many welcome the emphasis on well-being and skill development, while others worry about subjectivity and the lack of clear benchmarks for comparison. Schools, in turn, face the challenge of explaining these changes while maintaining transparency and trust.

Teachers at the Heart of the Transition

No education reform can succeed without teachers, and competency-based learning places unprecedented demands on them.

Teachers are now expected to move from being content deliverers to facilitators of learning, a shift that requires designing experiential lesson plans, developing assessment rubrics, offering individualized feedback, and continuously tracking student progress.

Highlighting how this transition is unfolding in classrooms, Manorama Karki, Vice Principal, Heritage Girls School, Udaipur, said, “For the 2025–26 academic session, the CBSE Class X board examinations will include 50% competency-based questions, marking a decisive shift away from rote learning. This change reflects India’s broader transition towards understanding, application, and real-life skills.”

“Indian classrooms are increasingly adopting subject-integrated and blended learning approaches. Aligned with NEP 2020, the focus is now on critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, making classrooms more learner-centric and better preparing students for higher education, careers, and a dynamic global future,” Karki added.

Sharing insights from her experience at the school level, Karki said, “As an educator, I strongly believe, and also witness in my school, that competency-based education has become an integral part of classroom teaching. This approach goes far beyond memorisation.”

“Regular integration of multiple subjects and the use of blended learning strategies are strengthening conceptual understanding and making learning more meaningful. These practices are positively influencing teaching outcomes and significantly enhancing the overall learning experience for students,” she added.

At the policy level, NEP 2020 acknowledges the scale of this transition by calling for large-scale teacher professional development, with training modules increasingly focusing on pedagogy, assessment literacy, and classroom innovation.

Digital platforms and national initiatives have expanded access to such training, particularly in government schools. However, many teachers continue to point to practical constraints. Large class sizes, administrative workload, limited planning time, and uneven training quality often hinder meaningful adoption.

In some cases, educators are asked to implement competency-based assessments without adequate institutional support, resulting in superficial compliance rather than genuine pedagogical change.

Classroom Reality: Early Adopters vs Late Movers

The gap between early adopters and late movers is becoming increasingly evident. Urban private schools, particularly those with international exposure or flexible curricula, have embraced project-based learning, interdisciplinary teaching, and reflective assessment. Students in these settings are more likely to engage in discussions, presentations, and collaborative tasks.

In contrast, many government and rural schools face infrastructural and staffing challenges. Limited resources, multi-grade classrooms, and exam-oriented expectations make the transition more difficult.

Even within the same school, traditional teaching methods often coexist with competency-based assessments, creating a disconnect between how students are taught and how they are tested.

The Road Ahead

Competency-based learning is not a short-term reform but a long-term cultural shift. For NEP 2020’s vision to succeed, alignment is essential across textbooks, teaching practices, assessments, and teacher training.

Board exams must continue evolving in ways that reward understanding rather than recall, while competitive examinations will eventually need to follow suit.

The transition will be uneven, and setbacks are inevitable. Yet, the direction is clear. In many ways, India is not inventing a new idea but rediscovering an old one, learning as understanding, not repetition.

If implemented thoughtfully and supported consistently, competency-based education has the potential to break India’s decades-old exam obsession and prepare students not just to score well, but to think, adapt, and thrive in an increasingly complex world.