Open Forum

New Delhi, 23 July 2020

Examination Reform

NOT TEMPORARY CHANGES

By Dr S. Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi

While conceding the importance of health needs, the guidelines issued by the UGC hold on to the established idea that, “it is very crucial to ensure academic accountability, career opportunities, and future progress of students globally”, and state, “Academic evaluation of students is a very important milestone in any educational system. The performance in examinations gives confidence and satisfaction to the students and is a reflection of competence, performance and credibility that is necessary for global acceptability”.     

The guidelines, legally binding on the universities, were issued more than 10 days ago, but still several universities have not been able to decide on conducting examinations. State governments and universities nurse a grievance that they were not consulted before issuing the guidelines.

Six States -- Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal are seeking cancellation of final year examinations for college students due to practical difficulties in the prevailing lockdown situation. Delhi has even cancelled the examination. However, over 200 universities have already conducted their semester and final examinations.

Lockdown in different measures clamped to control spread of COVID-19 infection has so deeply   impacted educational system and institutions that many changes are urgently needed to cope with the situation without endangering human lives and health. Among these, the most pressing in the current closing and fresh admission months of the academic year in India relates to conducting examinations. 

The University Grants Commission has intimated to the universities that cancellation of final year examination will not be in the interests of students. Awarding degrees without examination is not acceptable to the UGC. For, it would encourage demands for postponement or cancellation of exams from one State or other in times of any emergency like cyclone, flood, etc. “The populist action versus long-term goals of the education system needs to be considered together”, said Secretary to HRD Ministry.

COVID-19 pandemic is a national and global crisis of enormous magnitude unlike flood or earthquake which are localised, and therefore, human activities with potential to aggravate the situation have to be avoided. Some campuses are even converted as COVID care centres. The nation is actually facing a grave health emergency that has to be taken into account in its full dimensions while weighing our options in running schools and colleges.

Indeed, instead of somehow conducting examinations, it is ripe time to think of and introduce alternative methods of student assessment in the place of final examination using question papers and answer sheets. The option of online or offline or a combination of the two has been granted under UGC guidelines and the date shifted up to September 2020. Provision for special examination is made for those unable to write the examination on the scheduled day.

The guidelines are not agreeable to many States. Delhi University students consider these as arbitrary and discriminatory and went to High Court. Haryana, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan had cancelled final year examinations before the guidelines of the UGC were issued.

Maharashtra Government is sticking to its stand that conducting examinations “would endanger the well-being of students, parents, teachers, supporting staff, and other machinery involved in the process”. The Government decided to award degrees based on evaluation of students’ performance in previous semesters and internal assessment.

In Bihar, where majority of students are from rural areas, universities are not keen on online option as many villages have no internet connectivity. The State has to set up more examination centres to maintain social distancing.

The UGC seems to place extraordinary importance on the final examination although throughout the degree course several semester examinations and many informal assessment practices are followed. If students, teachers, and colleges take these different assessments seriously, the tendency to place excessive stress on the final examination would not have developed.

Class X Board examinations have been cancelled in Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. All students will be promoted in TN. CBSE announced in the last week of June cancellation of remaining examinations due for Class X and XII and allotment of marks based on internal assessment.

The world of school and college education is undergoing a turmoil and within it specifically the examination system. Surprisingly, the pass percentage in CBSE Class XII Board examination has reached 88.8 - even beyond its record in many previous non-pandemic years. The number of students scoring 95% and above has more than doubled. Doubtless, it is a result of generous award of marks to encourage the depressed students to get over the psychological impact of the pandemic fear hanging over their head. Basically, it reflects the overwhelming importance   attached to marks obtained in examinations by not only educational institutions and student community but also parents and friends of students, employers, and generally in the society.  Even media highlights marks and rank and give wide publicity to top rankers. The preoccupation with scoring marks has not weakened even under a dangerous pandemic.

Marks are important, no doubt, as representing the learning capacity of students. But, examination, marks and ranks are only assessment tools that can be modified.

As a result of changes in the examination schedule, reopening of institutions is delayed and CBSE syllabus for Classes IX to XII has to be drastically reduced by 30% for the academic year 2020-21. Anyway the present syllabus is heavily loaded with informative material which with proper orientation, students should be able to acquire themselves. What is needed is inclination to learn, more skills, and critical abilities.

Most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions. China was the first to close all schools and colleges on 26 January. In England, examinations and school-based assessments have been cancelled this year and schools and colleges have been asked to provide judgements of the final grades that they believe their students would have got.  Cancellation of some examinations is resorted to in many countries all over the world.

On March 4, UNESCO reported that 22 countries in three continents had closed school and universities impacting 290.5 million students around the world. It called on countries to support affected students and families and facilitate large-scale inclusive distance learning programmes.   By 10 March, it is reported that one in five students worldwide was “staying away from school due to COVID-19 crisis”. Another one in five was barred from higher education institutions. By 7 June, about 1.725 billion learners were affected by school closures. According to UNICEF monitoring reports, 134 countries have shut educational institutions impacting  98.5 % of world’s student population.

UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2020 which assesses progress towards reaching Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education  looks at assessments from the viewpoint of inclusion and calls for shifting focus away from high stakes assessments to students’ tasks -  how they tackle them. This would mean that sudden interruptions in education would be less of an issue for ensuring that qualifications are not affected.

COVID-19 has brought about less reliance on final examinations. Now is the time to design some substantial reform in the examination system instead of temporary one-time changes to be reversed at the earliest.---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)