CBSE launches school performance report cards, but what good is accountability without transparency?

The Central Board of Secondary Education has rolled out its School Academic Performance Report Card for the 2024-2025 session. It has been celebrated as a progressive step bolstering the education quality of schools.

For the very first time, a detailed analysis of how every affiliated school fares academically and holistically has been provided.

For a system long dominated by rote metrics and superficial comparisons, this initiative represents a quiet revolution.Each report card offers an in-depth dissection of performance in Class 10 and 12 board examinations, mapping subject-wise outcomes, benchmarking results against state and national averages, and analysing gender-based learning trends.

Beyond academics, it captures participation and achievement in sports and co-curricular activities, marking a shift towards holistic assessment rather than a fixation on marks alone.On paper, it’s exactly what Indian education has needed, a mirror reflecting both excellence and inefficiency, guiding schools to make evidence-based pedagogical decisions rather than relying on intuition or reputation.

The curtain of confidentiality

Yet this reform carries a brimming paradox. The mirror, though polished, remains hidden.

The report cards are available only to schools through their confidential login IDs and are not open to the public.This decision has drawn sharp reactions from parents, who argue that withholding such information deprives them of the ability to make informed choices. After all, transparency in performance is not about competition; it’s about trust.

The pros: A step toward smarter, self-aware schooling

The CBSE’s initiative offers undeniable advantages that, if implemented earnestly, can reshape how schools assess quality and performance.Evidence over assumptionFor decades, Indian schools have operated on intuition rather than information. The new report cards replace that ambiguity with clarity, offering subject-level insights, comparative analyses, and trend mapping that can guide targeted interventions rather than broad generalisations.Institutional accountabilityBy benchmarking each school’s outcomes against state and national averages, the report card forces institutions to confront their performance in objective terms.

It transforms vague notions of “good results” into measurable progress, a crucial shift for real accountability.Gender and inclusivity insightsThe inclusion of gender-based performance trends is particularly forward-looking. It enables schools to monitor equity in learning outcomes and ensure that progress isn’t skewed by gender disparities, a persistent concern in India’s education landscape.Alignment with NEP 2020The focus on continuous assessment and self-improvement echoes the NEP’s call for schools to evolve beyond rote-driven systems.

By embedding data analytics into pedagogy, the CBSE is nudging institutions toward long-term academic planning, not one-time examination results.Beyond marks: Recognising holistic growthBy integrating data from sports and co-curricular activities, the initiative acknowledges that education extends beyond textbooks. It encourages schools to view holistic development as an academic strength rather than an afterthought.

The Cons: A reform that stops short of transparency

Despite its promise, the initiative falters on one critical front, public accountability. Its confidentiality risks undermining the very progress it seeks to achieve.The transparency deficitParents, who are the primary investors in a child’s education, remain in the dark. Without access to their school’s performance data, they cannot make informed choices or hold institutions accountable. Transparency is not a threat, it is the foundation of trust.Risk of complacencyWhen data is seen only by those it critiques, there is a danger of selective introspection. Some institutions may use the findings to improve; others may ignore them altogether. Without public scrutiny, reform becomes optional, not mandatory.Missed opportunity for public benchmarkingThe absence of aggregated or anonymised public data denies policymakers and communities the ability to track regional trends, resource gaps, or systemic inequities.

Open data could have been a catalyst for collective progress, now it remains a closed-loop exercise.Fear of exposure over need for improvementBy keeping performance data private, CBSE inadvertently reinforces a culture of image protection over growth. Schools hesitant to reveal weak points will continue to prioritise perception over progress.Limited parental engagementA reform that excludes parents from its data narrative risks alienating them from the learning process.

In an era when parental involvement strongly correlates with student success, this silence feels counterproductive.

Finding the balance: Between introspection and accountability

The CBSE’s approach is not misguided, it’s incomplete. The system needs to find a middle path between introspection and transparency. Publicly releasing aggregate data or district-level performance summaries could achieve accountability without triggering unhealthy competition.Such a model would preserve the privacy of individual schools while enabling communities to track educational progress in their regions. It would also help policymakers address disparities in access, teaching quality, and student outcomes with precision rather than assumption.