Exams are scary, tedious, and challenging.
The nation is in the process of restoring the normal teaching-learning process of offline education in our institutions. However, some states/education boards/universities have decided to continue with the virtual examination process even in the current academic session.
Thanks to Covid, many students worldwide have had an opportunity to experience a fearless, exciting, and easy examination. The online process of conducting examinations has been the order of the day now. Students find it pretty comforting to appear in such an evaluation process. The reason behind this student comfort is obvious: they do not have to worry about their knowledge or retention – google assistance is readily available. Moreover, when you are in the comfort of home, the scare of an invigilator hovering like a drone doesn’t exist!
The question that haunts most educationists is the impact of the new format of examinations. Are we losing the essence of the concept called “examination”? Do the mark sheets obtained from these online, sitting-at-home examinations really make any sense for the students? Is the process of creation of wisdom and imparting knowledge getting hugely compromised? Have examinations become redundant today? If yes, will tomorrow’s engineers, doctors, administrators, lawyers, etc., be able to do justice to their work? Is there any organised body that might track, research and access the future impact of the changing pattern of examinations!
What is the key purpose of conducting a university or a school-level examination? Definitely, it is not to segregate and list out the toppers from others in a class. Student rankings, merit lists, fail and pass etc., are just the by-products of the system. Marks are useless; the understanding of the subject must take precedence. The real purpose of conducting any examination is to facilitate the learning process. When you are put to the test, you get to know the level of your understanding. An examination process must enlighten a student on their strengths and weaknesses.
The general observation is that examinations in the past have not been adding much value to any student’s learning. The results (mark sheets) have helped them only as documentary evidence helpful to secure a job or further admission in some other organisation. The pressure of merit and the fear of getting left out in the race of numbers have already caused a lot of damage.
I think educationists and policymakers need to rethink and rework this essential element of the education system. A fresh look into the virtual learning process is imminent. Hopefully, New Education Policy (NEP) has already addressed a few of these concerns. The future of examinations could be no examinations or self-assessments. Not all institutions in India might be technologically capable of conducting proctored and foolproof examination processes online. Summative examination evaluation offers corrective insights, that too one time and at the end of the session. As such, it is at best a reflection of the student’s memory system and does not contribute to enlightening the student. It is time to move from a one-time examination system to continuous formative assessments.
The outcome of the education system must shift from generating a student’s capability to “recall and write in examination” to “understand, think and apply in real life”. This shift is a must. Although this transformation may not happen quickly, significant change takes effort and patience to establish! We have already experimented with innovative testing formats like open-book assessment, submission-based evaluation etc. It is high time that a much more robust, purposeful, yet creative system of conducting examinations is evolved by academia.
Do contact me in case you have any career queries.
Dr. Ajit Varwandkar is the Director of myaglakadam.com. He is a leading career counsellor and can be contacted on 9826132972 or email him at info@fsindia.in
This column was originally published by the author in The Times of India