Twice the Exams, Twice the Stress: The Flawed Logic of Biannual Board Exams

Twice the Exams, Twice the Stress: The Flawed Logic of Biannual Board Exams

What creates stress among students? The simple answer is exams. And what creates even more stress? The answer is board exams. Interestingly, the government is cognizant of this fact, and it was also amplified in the new education policy. The policy advocated for low-stakes board exams.

Now, in the name of low-stakes board exams, CBSE has mooted the idea of introducing board exams twice a year. It is like, in the name of better care for a patient, a doctor introduces more frequent treatment. So, if a patient was required to take medicine once a day, the new suggestion is to take it twice a day. The patient had hoped to be freed from taking medicine altogether.

If there is anything that the twice-a-year provision of board exams can do, it is to create double the pressure and sustained stress on students, teachers, and school infrastructure. Practically, this also means a non-teaching period starting from December till June—a period marked as the examination period. There are already severe limitations on teaching time in classrooms. The additional pressure on schools to conduct board exams will further take away time from teachers that should be devoted to teaching. This means even less time for teaching and learning activities in the classroom.

For students solely dependent on school teaching, the average teaching and learning time would fall below two hours a day if calculated on a yearly basis. This will be catastrophic for children from disadvantaged sections of society. On one hand, we are entering a more complex world. With each passing day, the boundary between the physical and virtual world is getting blurred. This complex world requires a greater number of learning hours. However, systematically, we are ensuring that children from disadvantaged sections get fewer learning hours.

The simplest option for board exams is no board exams. It is the teachers who teach students throughout the year, and they are the best people to assess them. In the name of objectivity, we actually take away teachers' agency to assess the children they teach. Anyways, teaching and learning are subjective experiences—why should assessment be objective, at least at the school level? Don't we trust our teachers? Fine, if we do not trust them in terms of assessment, but we still trust them in terms of teaching.

On the question of standardization, if it has any value other than optics, board exams have already lost their significance. Universities do not trust boards. They already conduct standardized all-India entrance exams, popularly known as CUET. For students entering the job market, there are already different exams to test their abilities—whether in government or private sectors, nobody trusts the boards.

Boards may very well serve as a valid certificate-issuing authority, but to do so, they do not need to conduct exams. Schools must be trusted, and if we trust them for teaching and learning, why can’t we trust them for assessment? Whatever results schools submit to the board, the board can certify them.

In my understanding, conducting board exams twice a year may serve any purpose except making board exams a lower-stakes affair or relieving students from examination-related stress.

What do students feel about exams? Find out here.

https://reflectivediary.com/node/265