The decision to cancel the exam has been taken keeping in mind the overall interest of the students which is related to the system. Its academic side has no role. The cancellation of the examination will bring many challenges and can have far-reaching effects on academic excellence.
With the cancellation of the exam, there are three main challenges before us. To develop a valid and transparent evaluation system.
Secondly, will this internal framework not discourage meritorious students, and thirdly how will the entrance examinations for the undergraduate level classes take place?
There are two important aspects in the conduct of board exams. First, the academic side of the exam, and second, the successful conduct of the exam.
Obviously, the decision to cancel the exam has been taken keeping in mind the overall interest of the students, which is related to the system. Its academic side has no role.
The cancellation of the examination will bring many challenges and can have far-reaching effects on academic excellence.
Though we are in the 21st century to say, our examination system is still governed by the mindset of the 20th century.
The system of school evaluation is in force till class IX, but in class 10 and 12, the system of evaluation is based on a scheduled external examination to be held at the end of the term.
There are 74 boards in the country today and none of the boards have implemented a continuous system of formative evaluation despite the second year of this pandemic.
At the end of the year, the emphasis is on a summative examination system instead of continuous evaluation.
On the other hand, this is the second year in a row that international boards have not faced any particular difficulty in this regard.
A reliable and effective system of continuous evaluation is implemented in their system. On the basis of which the result of the examination has been successfully declared by them without completing the summative examination held at the end of the term.
There is no doubt that ensuring a system of valid and internal assessment in Class 12 will be a difficult task. There will also be possibilities of inflation.
It is generally seen that the meritorious students do not take the pre-board exams seriously enough.
In such a situation their average score may come down. Therefore, it would be appropriate that in this framework the annual marks of class 11 and the result of the board examination of class 10 should also be taken into account.
The admission system at the undergraduate level of the university is generally done on the basis of marks scored in class 12 till now.
Change in this would be desirable and now the selection system should be developed in place of the review system.
It may consider conducting a short duration entrance test in case of need by incorporating the criteria of marks quality along with the coefficient of marks obtained in class 10 and class 12.
With this arrangement, at least the meritorious students will get the facility of equal opportunity.
This is also necessary so that these children do not feel sorry in the future that they did not get any opportunity to show excellence.
We have to change the system by crossing the boundaries. For a long time, academicians have been talking about radical changes in the examination system.
All the education commissions set up after independence have expressed deep concern over our examination system and many recommendations have been made by them for the desired improvement.
Although considerable progress has also been made in these periods. But the fundamental shortcomings in the system still persist.
The time has come to consider giving autonomy to some school groups as well. The board should mark schools known for innovation education in this regard.
Such schools should be encouraged to develop their own assessment method which is trained and approved by the Board.
We don’t need to change the board exam at the moment as there is no option now.
Along with the external examination of the board, emphasis should be given on formative assessment throughout the year and by writing separate marks in the marks report card of formative and summative examination, the result should be declared on the basis of the overall score.
Multiple tools (reports, group activities, case studies, quizzes, project work, research-based activities, open-book examinations) should be used in continuous evaluation so that there is a holistic assessment of the students.
It would not be appropriate to postpone it even now. Let’s sit down and try to implement from the upcoming academic session itself by finding a practical option for evaluation.