5 Reasons Why We Must Discontinue Board Exams

5 Reasons Why We Must Discontinue Board Exams

Like every year, this is the season of celebration and disappointment for students who have appeared for the board exams. A large number of students may find it a celebration for achieving high scores, while others may experience greater disappointment. Even students who have scored 90% or more may be disappointed because some students have scored even higher. This system of standardized testing is problematic. It is not just my opinion, but even the recently introduced India's new education policy underlines the challenges the board exams throw on the education system of India and advocates discontinuing the 10th class board exam and making the 12th class board exam less demanding.

Here, we take a look at why we should discontinue board exams:

1. Interference of the State - Long back in 2007, while speaking at an extempore competition, I made this statement. After 16 years, I continue to believe in it. The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), a government repository of data related to school education, reveals that more than 40% of students are enrolled in private schools. It is an established fact that most of the governments across the country are withdrawing from the education sector. If the state cannot provide education, construct school buildings, or employ teachers, why do they need to assess students? It is nothing but a system of interference. Because of the board exam, most of the schools that otherwise have no support from the state feel suffocated to fall in line with what the board imposes on them. This system controls what teachers should teach and how students should learn.

2. Distrust in School Administration and Teachers - It does not mean that the state has the legitimacy to continue with the board exam where it makes the provision. It simply means that there is distrust in the school administration and particularly in the teachers. Teachers who remain engaged with students in the process of teaching and learning throughout the year are best placed to assess the students. Imposing the idea of objectivity in assessment is actually a distrust shown in the teachers who teach their students. How can the evaluation by a teacher who has just assessed an answer sheet be better than a teacher who has observed the students throughout the year? It's like passing judgment on the difficulty of life faced by people living in Siberia based on a picture and not trusting the judgment of someone who has actually lived there. Not allowing teachers who teach the students in the evaluation process is actually a question mark on their professional identity. We cannot inspire teachers without restoring their professional identity, and an uninspired teacher cannot create an engaged classroom.

3. Integrated Assessment - Most research in the field of assessment suggests that it has to be integrated. We cannot judge it at the end of the year. We have to follow the principle of assessment for learning. Learning something cannot be seen as an end result. The learning of one concept prepares a base for the learning of other concepts. Assessment of learning is actually a process of learning. Keeping the two separate is a fundamental mistake we are making in understanding what learning is. This creates a milieu where teaching for learning is replaced by teaching for testing.

4. Standardized Testing - Neither teachers nor students are willing to undertake risks for understanding. They are satisfied with safer, “correct answers compromise” on genuine understanding. Both teachers and students consider education to be a success if students can provide answers that have been taught and are considered correct. In the long run, such a compromise is not a happy one because genuine understanding cannot come about as long as one accepts ritualized, rote or conventionalized performances. It's standardized testing that legitimizes the phenomenon of "Correct Answer Compromise." writes Howard Gardner in his book, The Unschooled Mind.

5. Beyond the Numbers-Learning, not glamor, should be the focus of education. One of the deepest assaults that the positivist school of thought has made is the conversion of learning into measurable units of numbers. While this may work fine for bureaucratic and administrative purposes, it is a catastrophe for learners and society as a whole. For instance, does a child with 90 percent marks in history demonstrate an understanding of how historical phenomena are connected to life around us? We don’t have much evidence. Some research conducted with students in the Ivy League found that they failed to establish a link between theoretical knowledge from a particular discipline and practical challenges they face in life. Communicating learning in numbers is just a fancy way of presenting things and has little to do with the idea of learning and understanding.