Prof. Raj Shree Dhar
“If you fail to be disappointed with failure, you will be successful. You need to move ahead of bad attempts; self-confidence is very important. It’s not a pill or herb. There is no tablet that can be consumed for instant confidence. We have to build it every day.” – Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 5th Pariksha Par Charcha-2022
What is purpose of education? Should young people become educated to get prepared to enter the workforce, or should the purpose of education be focused more on social, academic, cultural and intellectual development so that students can grow up to be engaged citizens? Whatever that purpose may be, education system eventually relies upon the integrity and efficacy of evaluation and assessment tools as the final outcome is always in the form of student performance report. Hence, the challenges faced due to the breach of examination and evaluation system should be of equal concern for the society as a whole.
Examination was created in the past to assess the student’s performance but modern methods of examination have made it a mere fear factor. Examinations are a way to test our knowledge. Without conducting the examinations and tests, students find it especially strenuous to concentrate on their studies and learn their lessons properly. So, examinations become necessary in schools and colleges in order to excavate the real skills, talents, and knowledge of the students.
A clear policy for dealing with unfair practices relating to examination or evaluation must be put in place. Understanding cannot be directly assessed, or inferred only from the outcomes of other activities. Tutors should think about how they ask their students to demonstrate their understanding. They may ask students during an examination, to describe a process, to discuss a concept, to evaluate some data or to derive an equation. These are the tasks that the student actually does in order to demonstrate his/her understanding, so these terms can be used to express the learning outcomes. Examination can be made suitable for the measurement of a student’s knowledge by asking questions which test the understanding and knowledge of the concepts of the different subjects, this may decrease the pressure related to examination on the students.
Such remodeling of the evaluation system would bring in complete transparency and the students will tend to hold fewer grudges against the examining authority. Families, school community and society, in general, will be greatly benefitted from any such move leading to complete transparency in the evaluation system. Examining authority should understand that the outcome of the examination is of utmost importance to the examinee concerned and it is his/her right to know the way he/she performed in the examination through the evaluated answer books in a duly worked framework ensuring unconcealed and reliable mechanisms.
All teachers engaged in the process of evaluation should consider themselves in the most pious role and any shift in their uprightness is likely to create havoc in the life of an individual student. Sensitization of teachers for their responsibility towards innocent pupils should be rigorously carried out prior to the commencement of evaluation process every year and it should be embedded in their mind that any negligence on the part of evaluator could create an indelible lifelong scar on the academic profile of a guiltless student.
The evaluation system needs to be thoroughly stratified for detecting the anomaly, if any, with the end goal of showing the evaluated answer book to every examinee after the evaluation process is over. In the present digital age, sharing, recording, and documenting have become child’s play. Therefore, using some suitable digital platform, the evaluated answer books should be digitally shared with the individual student before preparation of the result so as to provide an opportunity to them for raising their concerns, if any, with respect to the standard evaluation template.
The variation beyond permissible limit as prescribed in the evaluation template should be corrected before the preparation of the result. Thus, with the explicit policy framework and foolproof processes for the evaluation with complete transparency, the examinee as well as examining authority and teachers engaged in these processes will never be accused of any injustice meted out to any stakeholder and the evaluation system will become robust as well as trustworthy.
Therefore, it is extremely essential for the examining authority to remodel its examination-evaluation processes while strengthening its integrity and trying to bring in complete transparency in the evaluation system. Apart from imparting knowledge to the students, their assessment, tests, examination etc. are the basic needs through which they can see themselves as competent learners.
A good assessment plan provides teachers with information about what students know and can do and therefore, is also a roadmap for the students. The reason for the students to fear tests is because of the way it is held in an unnecessarily complicated fashion. The focus is more on memorization and rote learning instead of recreation; it should be more play, discovery, and discussion- as well as choice-based as their goal is to become independent and be able to think of their own problems and craft their unique solutions. Before assessing the students, it is necessary to know what kind of students we are assessing; we have to know their strengths, weaknesses, skills, and the knowledge of the students in order to be able to assess or examine them.
The long-term benefits can be determined by the students who attend all classes and tests and we have to see how they use the learned knowledge, skills or attitudes. Assessment is a test that can generate different outcomes, e.g., surveys, placement tests, skill tests, personality tests and can further improve quality. We can create different types of evaluations i.e., the final review of product like examinations, quizzes or assessments. Online assessments may also give an overview of the students registered in a particular session.
Our children are the next generation and we are passing on a legacy to them; we must give careful consideration, therefore, to the quality of that legacy, how we raise our children, and the values we instill in them. Assessment sits at the heart of the learning process, as it provides the observable evidences of learning, determines student progress, and demonstrates an understanding of the curriculum. More broadly, it could be said that an institution, culture, or society depicts its conceptualization of learning and ideal future citizens by how it creates and uses the frameworks of assessment. We must try to experiment and innovate if we aim to reform the examination system.
As recommended in “Evaluation reforms in higher Educational institutions” by UGC, the need for setting course-wise question paper through the large question bank system is felt due to an increasing number of students enrolling for higher education programmes, thus increasing the load which the existing pattern of examining must bear alongside curriculum revisions, inter-disciplinary nature of subjects due to integration of course contents from diverse courses, and the need for increasing the involvement of teachers in the evaluation processes. Consequently, there is a constant need for the development of standards and sustaining a standard quality of examination along with the demand for fair and just evaluation process. As per the National Academic Depository Website, NAD is an online store house of all academic awards i.e., certificates, diplomas, degrees, marksheets etc. duly digitized and lodged by academic institutions / boards / eligibility assessment bodies. NAD not only ensures easy access to and retrieval of an academic award but also validates and guarantees its authenticity and safe storage. This is one of the apparatuses which will enable educational institutions, students, and employers the privilege of online access/retrieval/verification of digitized academic awards and as a result, shall eliminate fraudulent practices such as forging of certificates and mark-sheets. However, the end goal remains the establishment of healthy standards in both learning and evaluating so that the students’ marksheets and degree certificates are not jettisoned as mere pieces of paper but instead become the emblems of actual education and genuine scholarship that India has been renowned for since time immemorial.
(The author is Principal, Govt. Degree College, Jindrah, J&K)
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