When One Exam Determines Everything: Why India Needs Multi-Dimensional Assessments and How to Make That Happen

The biggest argument in favour of a single highstakes examination has been fairness and objectivity Standardised written tests like the JEE NEET and CAT and even the standard 10 and 12 board exams despite various challenges have captured the imagination of the world for decades and have been particularly useful in India They provide a fair selection system for when the supply of talent is far greater than what institutions can absorb They have been the basis for many families to leapfrog into higher standards of living or make bigger contributionsIn the last few weeks and months the media and public have been deeply engaged with issues around examinations The exam reforms committee led by Nandan Nilekani offers a lot of hope in strengthening technology and processes Along with that I would like to step back and ask a fundamental questionWhat happens when one examination carries almost the entire weight of deciding a studentrsquos achievement progression and future opportunities Is this an opportunity for us to move to more multidimensional assessmentsNEP 2020 has already emphasised the importance of multidimensional assessments Educators widely recognise that marks alone even more so from a single exam do not give a full picture of a studentrsquos skills attitudes growth and sometimes even conceptual understanding But multidimensional assessments are challenging to implement The more we understand these challenges the more we question whether we should proceed or not Today I want to delve into the implementation of this high potential and fundamental change both the why and the how in a system as large and diverse as oursObjectivity And How To Solve For ItThe first major bottleneck cited against multidimensional assessments is objectivity The original power of our standardised exams lay in the ability for every candidate to have an equal shot at success and through that socioeconomic mobility You could be a kingrsquos daughter or a factory workerrsquos son but what mattered was your ability to estimate how much the metal object would move due to the magnetic field and if that was enough to strike the block Such access creates aspiration and moves an entire system To use an analogy from teacher exams when CENTA started its International Teaching Professionalsrsquo Olympiad TPO leading to global rewards what was most powerful for a lot of teachers was the ability to access an international exchange programme or a big cash reward through objective criteria rather than nominations and interviewsBut with many of our standardised student exams becoming more predictable coaching has already changed access and indirectly the objectivity Add to that the dropouts that take place well before the schoolleaving exams and the argument of access and objectivity becomes even more unclearOn the other side rapid change in technology especially AI is leading to the question of what matters eventually should one be able to estimate how much the metal block will move or should one be able to design a product that uses this movement which a market is willing to pay for An interesting experiment to watch is the new lsquoDegree Lawrsquo passed in China in 2024 where PhDs are awarded based on realworld product builds rather than academic dissertationsIf that kind of realworld application and integration across domains matter then how does one assess those skill sets Again technology has brought an opportunity to do this at scale For multidimensional assessments like projects portfolios and products which systems like the International Baccalaureate IB have been using by keeping small class sizes AI can support evaluation at scale AI can rate descriptive responses and classroom evidence against welldesigned rubrics flag inconsistencies provide faster feedback and enable teachers to identify previously unseen patterns in student understanding We may no longer need to ask ldquois it better to be fairrdquo or ldquois it better to align assessments with the real worldrdquo We may be able to do both at scaleAre Our Teachers ReadyThe second major bottleneck to multidimensional assessments is teacher preparedness Teachers will need to know how to design tasks and projects rather than knowledgeoriented questions create rubrics interpret student work and give feedback that improves learning With CBSE increasing the weightage for what are called competencybased questions in the board exam we find that schools and teachers increasingly want training on the difference between competency and syllabus and how to teach and assess in a competencybased manner That demand is telling where change in assessments has arrived the appetite to meet it in the classroom followsThis brings us to the muchdebated question of sequencing Many systems prefer to first train teachers for a few years and only then change the examination model But a counterview which global evidence supports is that changing the examination model itself accelerates preparedness Education researchers call this the washback effect what an examination chooses to measure ends up shaping what classrooms teach and how quickly they adapt to teach it What an examination rewards is in the end what a system organises itself to deliverTowards a More Resilient SystemThe future of education isnrsquot the abandonment of examinations but rather their alignment with the skill requirements of the modern world At scale classrooms and teaching align with what is rewarded eventuallyThe ideal system maintains selection when necessary but doesnrsquot force one examination to carry the entire burden of judging a studentrsquos capability A more resilient model would allow written tests classroom assessments projects portfolios presentations teacher feedback and technologysupported evaluation to work handinhand Such a system would recognise both the answer sheet and how the childrsquos mind behind the answer sheet understands applies creates communicates reflects and grows over timeThe views expressed in this article are those of Ramya Venkataraman Founder amp CEO of Centre for Teacher Accreditation CENTA Pvt Ltd the worlds largest professional platform for teachers

When One Exam Determines Everything: Why India Needs Multi-Dimensional Assessments and How to Make That Happen

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When One Exam Determines Everything: Why India Needs Multi-Dimensional Assessments and How to Make That Happen

Other Articles

Mid-Day Fast