New policy likely to OK two board exams a year
NEP Aims To Ease Pressure On Students
If the final draft of the new National Education Policy
is approved, a candidate may be able to take the board exams twice in a year as
early as 2022, thereby eliminating the “high stakes” aspect of the exams and
easing the pressure on students and their parents. Allowing students to excel
in topics of their choice, the straitjacket of a particular format of subjects
could also be relaxed and students will be able to pick subjects depending on
their individualised interests for the board examinations.
Moreover, the new policy also calls for a high-quality common modular entrance
exam multiple times each year for undergraduate admissions in higher education
institutions.
Under school education and in the
sub-section “Transforming assessment for student development”, the NEP says the
“schooling system will shift from one that primarily tests rote memorisation
skills to one that is more formative, is competency based, promotes learning
and development for our students, and tests higherorder skills such as analysis,
critical thinking, and conceptual clarity.”
In order to reverse the “harmful
effects” of the current assessment system, the NEP is of the view that the
board exams will test primarily core capacities, so that “any student who has
been going to and making a basic effort in a school class will be able to pass
the corresponding subject board exam without much additional effort.”
The policy draft has entrusted the
task of preparing the guidelines for multiple board exams on the National
Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for the transformation of
the assessment system by 2022.
According to former CBSE chairperson
Ashok Kumar Ganguly, “What the new policy is talking about is semesterisation
of board exam. The core curriculum approach is now being done away with. The
board exam will now be modular in nature and students will be given options to
take board exams twice in a given single year. As the number of variables in
our board exam is very large, how this will be implemented in very large boards
like UP and CBSE needs to be seen. And whether this will not adversely impact
the already precarious teaching learning process in the school.” Welcoming the
focus on formative assessment, Ganguly, however, said that there is also not
much clarity about exam pattern in class 9 and 12. “It is heartening that
policy recognises the importance of formative assessment, but how this will be
given effect at grassroot level needs to be seen.”
Another former CBSE chief B P
Khandelwal said board exams had already seen a transformation when they used to
be conducted for two-years of study (Class 11 and 12). “ The point the policy
is clear about is that one should not create trauma in the minds of students.”
Source | Times of India | 1st
November 2019
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