Creating Critical Thinkers

Context: The pandemic is an opportunity to re-imagine educational assessments and evaluations.

Key concerns regarding educational assessment

• Future concerns including admissions to higher educational institutions.
• Credibility concern relating to the practice of students cheating if exams were to be conducted online.

Way forward

• Question paper reforms: Encourage students to critically engage with the material, contest perspectives and build opinions so that no book would be able to provide all answers.
• Towards formative assessment: Build across year holistic evaluation models.
  • Incorporating self-accountability and trust: Reports, portfolios, samples of responses, and grades could be shared across a pool of schools so that teachers can anonymously assess and provide insightful feedback on student performance.
  • Beyond academic performance: National Curriculum Framework of 2005 affirms the importance of embracing the emotional, social, physical and intellectual growth of children within a framework of human values.
• Facilitate online entrance exams for admissions to higher education institutions: Involving students in self and peer evaluations.
• Re-define role of the state as facilitator: Government needs to give complete autonomy to educational committees composed of students, teachers, educational leaders, scholars and researchers.

Conclusion: Holistically reforming educational assessment and evaluations could pave the way for larger changes -

• Shift in the learning process: Moving away from the current system of cramming, rote learning and anxiety.
• Checking mass exodus to international universities: So that young leaders can be nurtured to engage with underlying national challenges and add value by advocating for and sustaining the fabric of a diverse and non-stratified India.