The need to examine the examination system

Source: This post has been created based on the article “The need to examine the examination system” published in “The Hindu” on 6^th January 2024.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice – Issues relating to Education.

News: The article discusses the issues with examination system in India. It also highlights the steps that should be taken in this regard.

What is the status of higher education examination systems in India?

India has more than 1,100 universities and 50,000 affiliated colleges including 700 autonomous colleges. This includes a total enrolment of 40.15 million students.

There are also 60 school boards for secondary and higher secondary levels of school education, certifying more than 15 million students every year.

These reflect the diversity of higher education examination systems in India.

What are the issues with examination system in India?

1. Focus on Memory and Rote Learning: An examination should test memory, application and critical thinking. However, there are complaints that the examination boards test only memory. Hence, students are only taught to memorize answers and score marks.
2. Narrow Objectives: Scoring marks and achieving a very high pass percentage have become the key objectives.
3. Quality Issues: There are question papers that have flaws such as language errors, errors in conceptualization, irrelevant questions and questions that do not test higher order learning.
4. Poor Mode of Assessment: The employability of a graduate depends on higher order learning; however, the examination boards do not assess students on those skills.
5. Creation of a Coaching Market: Since employers have their own rigorous assessment of a candidate’s academic achievements and suitability, it has created a coaching market for competitive examinations and skilling.
6. Advisories Not Followed: There are elaborate advisories on curriculum design, pedagogy, and examination systems from all the regulatory boards. In the absence of regular and effective oversight, these advisories are hardly followed by educational institutions.
7. Lack of Standardizations: The presence of the provision of autonomy of colleges gives the regulatory bodies no oversight authority over the autonomous colleges and their examinations.
8. Issues with Secrecy: Secrecy without proper checks and balances and audits leads to negative outcomes. There is secrecy involved in the whole examination process, from question paper setting to evaluation of answer scripts and mark sheet preparation. They are prone to malpractice.

What steps should be taken in this regard?

1. Proper Assessment: A good assessment system should be created.
2. Involvement of Professional Bodies: A greater involvement of professional bodies in curriculum design and teaching should help.
3. Maintaining Transparency: The credibility of assessment and standard of education can be ensured only through transparency in teaching and assessment. Transparency in accessing the evaluation process by students and grievance redressal measures should be in place.
4. Specifying Learning Outcomes: Minimum standards of learning outcomes should be specified.
5. Participatory Approach: Currently, the entire assessment process is in the teacher’s hands. Real time oversight with participative process of students’ assessment of teachers should make it better. This would lead to a system of checks and balances.
6. Use of Technology: The use of technology in assessment can enhance credibility. The setting of question papers and evaluation can be standardised.
7. External Audits of Assessment Systems: An external audit of assessment systems in universities and school boards is essential. Grading examination boards in terms of transparency, reliability and consistency should be a part of audit reports.

These steps will help university degrees and school board certificates to properly reflect the learning achievements of students.

Question for practice:

What are the issues with examination system in India? Mention the steps that should be undertaken to solve these issues.