The Holistic Progress Card (HPC) is the report card NEP 2020 introduces to replace a marks-only summary with a fuller picture of the learner. It was authored by PARAKH (“Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development”, the national assessment unit established at NCERT in 2023), which published HPC templates for every school stage.
Crucially, the HPC does not delete the marks. A CBSE student still receives subject grades, CGPA and an indicative percentage. The HPC is layered on top to answer a different question: not “what did the student score?” but “how is this student growing?”
What the HPC records
The HPC is defined by five features that distinguish it from a traditional report card:
- Multiple domains. It records cognitive, affective/socio-emotional and psychomotor development, aligned to the Panchakosha framework, rather than academic marks alone.
- 360-degree input. Structured feedback on the same learner comes from the teacher, the student (self-assessment), peers and parents.
- Narrative and qualitative. Descriptive reflections on strengths, challenges and growth areas appear alongside — not instead of — grades.
- Competency-based. Progress is recorded against competencies and learning outcomes, captured through projects, portfolios, quizzes, role-plays and group work.
- Stage-specific templates. There are distinct formats for the Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary stages, matching what matters at each level.
How it fits the existing CBSE report card
A CBSE report card already has two structurally separate halves: the scholastic side (subjects marked out of 100, on the 9-point grading scale, feeding CGPA) and the co-scholastic side (Art, Health & Physical Education, Work Education and a Discipline grade, on a separate 5-point A–E scale that does not affect CGPA). The HPC widens this further, adding the narrative, 360-degree and competency layers, without collapsing the two scales into one number.
For the mechanics of the marks side, see our companion guides on Internal Assessment and the periodic-test rule and how CGPA is calculated.
Why the HPC is hard to run on spreadsheets
The HPC pulls from many inputs across a whole term (periodic tests, multiple assessments, portfolios, project work, plus self, peer and parent reflections) and asks for both grades and narrative against competencies. Maintained by hand, that becomes a second (and third) spreadsheet running in parallel with the marks register, reconciled under deadline at term-end.
The shortcut that breaks the card
The most common mistake is conflating the two scales: storing a co-scholastic letter grade as a number, or averaging it into the scholastic result. That produces an invalid report card. The scholastic and co-scholastic halves have different scales, different inputs and different rules, and must stay separate from the start.
See how Relearns generates the HPC →