SUMMARY of the Article “Reforming School Exams” by Muhammad Memon, Dawn [Published on December 15th, 2023]
The article delves into the critical role of school exams in assessing academic performance, certifying standards, and ensuring accountability in the education system. Despite being a focal point in national education policies, significant exam reform remains elusive in Pakistan. The existing system is criticized for its inadequacy in assessing diverse learning outcomes and its susceptibility to cheating, malpractice, and corruption. Stakeholders, particularly parents and students, express dissatisfaction with the lack of fairness, transparency, credibility, and accuracy in exam results. The article highlights the absence of a written exam policy for public boards, citing issues such as outdated exam paper preparation, leakage, untrained examiners, tampered results, and delayed outcomes. Private education sectors, such as the Aga Khan University Examination Board, have emerged to address these challenges, adopting broader assessment frameworks, employing e-marking, and maintaining ethical practices. The need for a comprehensive restructuring of public exam boards, autonomy, and the establishment of an independent oversight body is emphasized. The transformation of the school exam system is deemed inevitable to align with 21st-century challenges, fostering creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills while curbing malpractices.
Easy/Short SUMMARY:
The article discusses the significance of school exams in assessing academic performance and accountability. It criticizes the existing Pakistani exam system for its shortcomings, including cheating and lack of transparency. Private boards like the Aga Khan University Examination Board are commended for adopting innovative assessment methods. The article calls for the inevitable transformation of the school exam system to promote essential skills and suggests restructuring public exam boards for better governance and transparency.
SOLUTIONS of The Problem:
1. Comprehensive Exam Reform:
- Implement a comprehensive reform of the school exam system, addressing issues of fairness, transparency, and credibility.
2. Written Exam Policy for Public Boards:
- Develop a written exam policy for public boards, incorporating national exam standards, automation, test specifications, and standard operating procedures.
3. Ethical Practices and Security Measures:
- Implement effective security measures to prevent paper leaks and adopt ethical practices, including e-marking and onscreen assessment.
4. Independent Oversight Body:
- Establish an independent oversight body, an ‘examination commission,’ to regulate the functions of public boards, set exam standards, and ensure transparency and consistency.
5. Restructuring of Public Exam Boards:
- Undertake complete restructuring of public exam boards in governance, management, human resources, finance, and quality assurance.
6. Coordination for Automation:
- Enhance coordination among exam boards for the automation of the exam system, ensuring positive results linked to the transformation of the entire education system.
7. Focus on Learning Outcomes:
- Shift the focus of exams towards assessing a wide range of learning outcomes, promoting creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
8. Credible Exam Results:
- Ensure credibility in exam results by curbing cheating, corruption, and malpractices, fostering trust among stakeholders.
9. 21st-Century Skill Development:
- Align the exam system with 21st-century challenges, emphasizing the development of skills crucial for the modern era.
10. Leadership and Managerial Skills:
- Introduce different kinds of leadership and managerial skills, resources, structures, and approaches to bring about effective changes in the education system.
IMPORTANT Facts and Figures Given in the Article:
- Existence of Private Boards: Aga Khan University Examination Board, Ziauddin University Examination Board.
- Initiatives by Federal Exam Board: Automation of the exam system.
- Coordination Body: Inter-Board Chairmen Commission (IBCC).
- Challenges in Public Boards: Lack of a written exam policy, outdated exam paper preparation, leakage, untrained examiners, tampered results, delayed outcomes.
MCQs from the Article:
- Which private board is mentioned for adopting a broader assessment framework?
A. Ziauddin University Examination Board
B. Aga Khan University Examination Board
C. Federal Exam Board
D. Provincial Public Boards -
What is one of the major criticisms of the existing exam system in Pakistan?
A. Overemphasis on creativity
B. Lack of standardized test specifications
C. Excessive focus on higher-order cognitive skills
D. Susceptibility to cheating, malpractice, and corruption -
Which coordinating body works at the federal level to discuss exam-related matters?
A. Provincial Boards Committee of Chairmen
B. Federal Exam Board
C. Inter-Board Chairmen Commission (IBCC)
D. Examination Commission -
What is one of the major initiatives taken by the federal exam board for transforming the system?
A. Introduction of e-marking
B. Development of an items bank
C. Automation of the exam system
D. Onscreen assessment by assessors -
What is the key focus for the transformation of the school exam system, according to the article?
A. Quantity of exams
B. Expansion of exam boards
C. Quality of exams
D. Student enrollment
VOCABULARY:
- Efficacy (noun) (تاثیر): The ability to produce a desired or intended result.
- Susceptibility (noun) (متاثرہ ہونے کی صلاحیت): The state or fact of being likely or liable to be influenced or harmed by a particular thing.
- Malpractice (noun) (برے عمل کرنا): Improper, illegal, or negligent professional activity or treatment, especially by a medical practitioner, lawyer, or public official.
- Credibility (noun) (قابل اعتمادی): The quality of being trusted and believed in.
- Consistency (noun) (مستقری): Conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness.
- Automation (noun) (خود کاری): The use or introduction of automatic equipment in a manufacturing or other process or facility.
- Oversight (noun) (نگرانی): An unintentional failure to notice or do something.
- Coordination (noun) (ہم آہنگی): The organization of the different elements of a complex body or activity so as to enable them to work together effectively.
- Rubrics (noun) (ہدایتیں): Explicit instructions about possible characteristics of a quality product and how those characteristics will be judged.
- Transformation (noun) (تبدیلی): A marked change in form, nature, or appearance.
📢 Attention Please!
We appreciate your commitment to acquiring knowledge through our summaries. Please be reminded not to remove the attribution label affixed to this article. It is crucial to acknowledge the source and the effort invested in creating this summary. We discourage any unauthorized distribution without proper credit. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. 🔍
⚡ Explore More Summaries, Solutions, and Vocabulary Meanings!
💡 Join our WhatsApp Channel for timely and comprehensive summaries of the latest articles, along with well-crafted solutions and helpful vocabulary meanings. Click the link below to join now:
🔗 Dawn Article Summaries WhatsApp Channel
WhatsApp Channel Link
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va7tT3o35fLnJeFbpS2y
dawn.com
Reforming school exams
Muhammad Memon
THE school exam is the cornerstone of any educational system which is responsible for assessing the academic performance of students based on a prescribed curriculum and textbooks, certifying that the students have met certain standards, and evaluating the education system’s performance for the purposes of accountability.
School exams exert a powerful influence on the lives of students, but have, unfortunately, not played their due role in accomplishing the aim of education. Transforming such exams has been the focus of national education policies but up until now, apart from some cosmetic changes, no systemic exam reform has been carried out in the country. Also, no external review of the school exam system has been conducted so far to examine its efficacy and effectiveness. As a result, an old exam system with some cosmetic changes has prevailed.
Owing to the high-stakes implications for students, exam systems have a responsibility to ensure the sound quality of the exams, the integrity of processes and the accuracy of results. However, in Pakistan, stakeholders, especially parents and students, have expressed utter dissatisfaction with the existing system since it is found to be lacking in assessing a wide range of learning outcomes, and doesn’t ensure fairness, transparency, credibility, and accuracy in exam results, thanks to excessive cheating, malpractice, and corruption. This criticism has been going on for the last several decades, but no real effort has yet been made to bring about improvement in school exams.
Public boards don’t have a written exam policy based on national exam standards including automation, test specifications, and standard operation procedures. According to the media and official inquiries, exam papers are mainly prepared on the basis of exam papers of the past five years, and focus on assessing cognitive skills of a lower order. Because of the lack of an effective security system, papers are leaked from exam boards, answer scripts are marked by untrained and irrelevant examiners without scoring rubrics, the results are often tampered with, inflated grades are awarded, and the results are delayed. Such is the rot that even students who acquire high grades are often not able to pass the entry tests conducted by professional and other colleges.
Public boards don’t have a written policy based on national exam standards.
The issue led to the creation of exam boards in the private education sector. The Aga Khan University Examination Board is the first such board in the country. It has adopted a broader framework of assessment. It developed an items bank and prepared balanced question papers assessing both the lower and higher order of cognitive skills among students. The board also introduced e-marking and onscreen assessment by a group of assessors regarded as specialists in their respective subjects.
The board followed international assessment standards in the setting of question papers, and has conducted exams and marked students’ answers while maintaining zero tolerance for unethical practices. Cheating and malpractices are hardly reported in its exams, which seems to be one of its major strengths. Exam results are carefully prepared and reviewed to avoid any error. The Ziauddin University Examination Board is another private exam board which has been established for promoting fairness and transparency in school exams.
All public sector boards are autonomous bodies and have their own boards of governors. However, in each province, there is a provincial boards committee of chairmen, meeting on a quarterly basis to deliberate on exam-related matters. All exam boards have been working under the umbrella of the Inter-Board Chairmen Commission (IBCC), which is a coordinating body at the federal level to discuss exam-related matters. However, it has not yet developed a cohesive exam policy to transform the exam system, except for focusing on some policy initiatives such as the grading scheme, alternatives to assessing practical exams, choices for optional subjects, and the eligibility of students appearing in the class nine exam, etc.
Among other public exam boards, the federal exam board has taken major initiatives for transforming the system, which includes the automation of the exam system. IBCC has been coordinating with other exam boards in the country for the automation of the exam system. But this will not bring positive results unless the entire exam system is reformed and linked to the transformation of education in the country in general.
The transformation of the school exam is inevitable since the quality of education, to a large extent, depends on the quality of exams. It is imperative to change the system and prepare students better for the challenges of the 21st century. At the same time, all boards require complete restructuring in matters of governance, management, human resources, finance, quality assurance and exams.
The provincial public boards have been operating under the administrative control of their respective provincial governments, which have been mainly overseeing administrative matters, whereas there is a dire need for regulating the functions of the boards through an independent oversight body such as an ‘examination commission’ that can establish exam standards to raise the quality of exams and maintain transparency and consistency in policy and practices. This would help repair stakeholders’ broken trust.
In response to the genuine concerns of educators, policymakers, and stakeholders, there is growing consensus on the need to transform the school exam system to make it reliable, fair and transparent so that it can promote creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Only such an effort will ensure academically well-rounded students. The system must also be made credible through curbing cheating, corruption, and malpractices. Transforming it should be linked to changing the whole education system, which would require different kinds of leadership and managerial skills, resources, structure and approaches.
The writer is a senior educationist, policy scholar, and researcher.
Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023