Government school teachers’ promotions will now be linked to classroom performance and demonstrated competencies rather than seniority alone, with the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) rolling out the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST), a new framework that seeks to reshape how teachers are assessed, promoted, and professionally developed across India.
The shift, aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, calls for common guiding standards that outline expectations from teachers at different stages of expertise and the competencies required at each level of schooling. It has triggered unease among a section of teachers even as NCTE officials argued it is essential to professionalise teaching.
A 11-members expert committee constituted by NCTE in August 2021 had prepared the NPST guiding document in August 2024. NCTE on January 19 launched the NPST handbook to “translate NPST into practice.” HT has a copy of the NPST handbook.
NCTE chairperson Pankaj Arora said the rollout will be gradual, with a pilot phase running until March 2026. The council has planned five national conclaves and 30 regional and state-level workshops to onboard 25,000 teachers and principals from 2,500 schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and state-run CBSE-affiliated schools.
“During the pilot phase, we are familiarising teachers with NPST and strengthening the portal. After March 2026, we will hold meetings with states that will adapt the framework to their local needs while maintaining minimum benchmarks in line with NPST. Our goal is to onboard all 10 million school teachers, including those from private schools, by 2030,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“During the pilot phase, we are familiarising teachers with NPST and strengthening the portal. After March 2026, we will hold meetings with states that will adapt the framework to their local needs while maintaining minimum benchmarks in line with NPST. Our goal is to onboard all 10 million school teachers, including those from private schools, by 2030,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}However, the framework has triggered mixed reactions from teachers and leaders of teacher unions, who argue that accountability is being tightened without addressing long-standing structural gaps.
Mohammad Haseeb, principal of a government primary school in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur, said performance-based assessment cannot be fair in poorly resourced schools. “Without fixing internet connectivity in schools that lack it, evaluation becomes meaningless. They want to assess teachers, which shows that they do not trust teachers who have been teaching for years,” he said.
Teachers have also flagged the burden of non-teaching duties, including mid-day meal supervision and extensive data entry across multiple digital platforms, warning that NPST’s evidence requirements could further reduce classroom time.
“Adding more documentation in the name of assessment under NPST will only push teaching further into non-teaching work, which will affect the learning of students,” said Kuldeep Khatri, president of the Shikshak Nyay Manch, a union representing teachers in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools.
Some teacher bodies, however, have welcomed the shift. Satpal Sindhu, president of the Haryana School Lecturers’ Association, said promotions should not be automatic. “Assessment-based progression is healthier than seniority alone, as long as evaluations are fair and transparent,” he said.
Responding to concerns, Arora said, “NPST is not a policing or check on teachers. It is aimed towards nurturing their potential, acknowledging their expertise to enable their professional growth in line with the NEP 2020. With a reform of this scale, policy must be shaped for the future and for all teachers, not just those hesitant about change. NCTE will provide continuous support through the NPST portal.”
Experts have cautioned that implementation will determine the framework’s success. Amit Kaushik, a former director of elementary education in the union government, said merit-based promotion is a sound idea but warned against excessive subjectivity. “Assessments must be standardised, and seniority should still carry some weight. Experience cannot be treated as irrelevant,” he said, adding that digital reforms must not further erode teachers’ autonomy.
Ramya Venkataraman, a member of the NPST drafting committee and CEO of global teacher competency platform Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), said competency-based progression is long overdue in teaching. “NPST will be best implemented in a public–private partnership model, where the reach and policy framework of the government combine with the agility and user-friendliness of the private sector,” she added
The NPST handbook defines clear, measurable benchmarks for teaching quality and aims to replace the existing seniority-driven promotion system with a performance- and competency-based model.
Under the new norms, teachers will be required to register on a dedicated NPST digital platform managed by NCTE and progress through three career stages: proficient, advanced, and expert. Each stage with a minimum of five years of period is mapped across three broad standards — core values and ethics, knowledge and practice, and professional growth and development — spread over 13 domains and 16 sub-domains, covering pedagogy, assessment, inclusion, classroom management, technology use, mentoring, and lifelong learning.
Unlike the current system, where promotions are largely determined by years of service, qualifications, and periodic appraisals, NPST has introduced structured competency mapping. Career progression will be assessed through a mix of self-assessment (30%), documented professional evidence such as lesson plans, innovation and mentoring (40%), and external evaluation by school heads or authorised assessors (30%). Teachers can take self-assessment once per academic year, but they have to complete five self-assessment modules over a minimum five-year period in each stage and secure a cumulative score of at least 75% to move to the next stage.