Assessment and Examination System in Pakistan
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According to the UN charter of rights, education is a universal human right that is to be ensured by every single UN member state in its territory. It is the responsibility of a state to provide equal opportunities and access to education to all citizens without any kind of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, color, religion, riches, and wealth.
In broader terms, education brings peace, harmony, sustainability, progress, and development in human society hence every single human being living on the planet earth has the right to seek education without any kind of discrimination.
Background
Anything that creates hindrances and obstacles in the way of seeking education is actually discrimination and hence denial of basic human rights in terms of education is clear-cut discrimination. Discrimination has many facets in terms of poverty, inaccessibility, low-quality education, outdated curriculum, tough and difficult examination systems, grading, assessment, and lengthy course contents.
Among these discriminations, assessment and examination systems are one of the very important hindrances and obstacles that cause discrimination in the way of seeking education. This blog article actually intends to highlight some of the main reasons that impact negatively and cause serious discrimination in the process of seeking education.
Researchers and scholars need to highlight and address these issues so that “education for all” as a universal right can be achieved uniformly.
Introduction
In the context of assessment and examination in Pakistan, we have different federal and provincial boards for intermediate and secondary education which conduct examinations annually across the country.
Similarly, we have Agha Khan Board and Cambridge Examination system in the country which conduct examinations in the private sector mainly and for ‘O’ & ‘A’ levels. Not only that but we have different curriculum wings and bodies working in the public and private sectors.
National Curriculum Wing, provincial textbook boards, Oxford, paramount, Agha Khan and so many other textbook publishing firms publish textbooks at local and national levels.
All these publication bodies follow their own set criteria for writing and publishing textbooks for secondary and higher secondary levels and none of them do any kind of research at local and gross-root levels or involve teachers and students in writing and publishing course books.
Usually, they hire some subject specialist experts and ask them to design and write textbooks. The same trend is also being followed by the boards of intermediate and secondary education (BISE) when it comes to developing and designing question papers for annual examinations and assessment purposes.
BISEs too hire some subject experts and ask them to design and develop a question paper as per the textbook board which is being followed by the BISE-affiliated schools and colleges.
The gap that has been broadened here and which needs to be addressed by all the curriculum wings and bodies working in the field of curriculum writing for Pakistan is that there is no mechanism to ensure that the teachers who are teaching that particular curriculum are capable enough, trained, equipped and highly qualified to teach at the secondary and higher secondary level or not.
On the other hand, all the BISEs and other examination boards do not even bother to know prior to conducting the annual examination that how much curriculum has been completed by different schools and colleges so that question papers can be developed accordingly.
In simple words, the argument which I want to develop here is that the ones (curriculum experts) who write curriculum, do not teach inside schools and colleges whereas, the ones (teachers) who teach inside schools and colleges, do not develop question papers for assessment and examination.
Similarly, the ones (examiners) who assess the student's performance through answer sheets do not teach those students. Moreover, this trio has no communication, collaboration, or cooperation among each other which reflects that there is a huge gap that needs to be addressed and filled immediately.
Adding to it, the above pointed-out gap in terms of assessment and examination mechanism has caused great discrimination and left negative impacts on the overall learning outcomes for students, teachers, and society, and more importantly, it has created certain hindrances in the cause of education for all as a fundamental and universal human right.
Some of the negative impacts that have caused discrimination in the process of seeking education including demoralization for the students are discussed below.
Psychological Impacts of BISEs Annual Examination System
Examinations being conducted by BISEs on annual basis are nothing but a pressure cooker for secondary and higher secondary level students. As a result of it, students feel deeply pressurised during examination days. Whereas grades also affect badly the mental, psychological, social, moral, and confidential levels among students.
Grades actually cause division and discrimination and as a result, students sometimes commit suicide due to low grades or failure in examinations. According to some newspaper reports and statistics, the suicide rate among students has risen up to 5.9% for every one thousand students, especially since 2010 and onwards. Punjab has the highest figure as compared to other provinces in this regard.
BISEs Annual Examination System; a Cause of Demotivation for Students
Many students, particularly from less privileged societies quit schools and colleges due to poor grades and a tough examination system that takes place once a year only. Students mainly from rural areas and poor family backgrounds find it quite difficult to pass the examination with high grades due to inappropriate preparation opportunities including hardly any learning environment and family support.
As a result of it, they quit their studies and feel demotivated and ashamed. In order to know the reasons, I personally interviewed some of the students who quit schooling.
The majority of them were of the view that they have fewer opportunities, can’t afford extra tuition, no access to libraries, internet, and computers, and lack of family support due to poverty, above all incompetent as well as poor teaching skills teachers, have eventually caused them to quit the schooling.
BISEs Annual Examination System; Ideal for Crammers only but not for Conceptual Learners
One of the major flaws of this assessment system is to create crammers only but not conceptual and creative mind learners. Tentatively those students who cram the textbooks and have better handwriting scores are quite high as compared to those students who are conceptual in approach, critical and creative mind learners.
This notion has actually killed the creativity among students and that is why we don’t have decision-makers, initiators, and leaders in our society who may lead the masses toward a prosperous society.
BISEs Annual Examination System & Fate of the Students
The single paper should not be the fate-deciding experience for the learners. Many times students can’t perform better due to a number of reasons but they don’t get another chance. This notion should be stopped immediately as the basic purpose of education is to give everybody access to it rather than creating obstacles for them.
A tough examination system should only be encouraged at the professional (job acquiring) level but not at school and college or even at the university level.
The process of teaching, assessing, and examining should be supportive and ideal for learners so that they may improve their skills and get access to quality education without any kind of hurdles for them.
Is BISEs Annual Examination System; a Fair, Transparent & Biasness Free for Students?
In Pakistan’s context generally and in Sindh’s context particularly, the answer to the above question is certainly a big no. BISEs assessment and examination system prioritize the private sector (English Medium) students over the public sector (Mother's tongue) medium which is very unfortunate.
Moreover, in the context of Sindh BISEs award high grades to politically influential students as well as sons/daughters of bureaucrats and to those who offer them huge bribes.
Similarly, it is a well known fact that BISEs officials in Sindh sell grades for the students of classes IX to XII. Therefore, anyone who offer them bribe can easily get A1 grades and even the positions. BISEs officials have become millionaires due to massive corruption and bribe. However, provincial government has never taken any serious steps to stop corruption inside BISEs by punishing corrupt officials.
Cheating, question paper leaking, and extra time for solving question papers for the blue-eyed candidates are some of the common practices in Sindh. All the above-mentioned facts clearly state that the BISEs assessment and examination system is no more fair and transparent hence it needs to be changed immediately.
What’s
the Way Forward?
There is indeed a clear-cut way forward to replace this traditional and outdated system. The solution lies in positive change by adopting Finland as a model of assessment and examination. Finland, which is currently the number one educational country in the world has not gained its status over-nightly rather it has believed in constant and positive change.
In Finland’s education system a teacher who teaches does all the important things from developing and setting curriculum (what to teach) to teaching (how to teach) and assessing as well as examining (when and why to assess).
Recommendations
& Conclusion:
There must be introduced a semester-based assessment and examination system in the context of Pakistan where teachers need to be empowered to set the updated curriculum for their students including teaching and assessing at their own level.
However, for those reasons teachers in Pakistan must improve their professional capabilities as per teaching techniques and methodologies in a world context. Similarly, students need to be assessed and examined throughout the academic sessions by adapting the semester system of assessment and examination.
For that reason, students' capabilities and skills must be assessed on different grounds including inside classroom participation, creativity, sports, conduct, assignment completion response, and different discussions and debates.
It is therefore topmost responsibility of the Ministry of Education of Pakistan as well as provincial governments to look into the matter and take decisive steps to stop discrimination in the education sector and ensure access to quality education for all.
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