Advocating the assessment systems, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said the Delhi Government has taken measure to change the traditional assessment systems in schools through the Delhi Board of School Education, where students are assessed for understanding instead of rote learning ability.
“The most pressing reform in the Indian education system today is the change in the traditional examination and assessment systems. Until the current examination system is changed, the entire education system will remain a slave of the 3-hour annual examination,” he said.
While addressing the school leaders and teachers from all over the country, Sisodia said that today the entire education system has become a slave of examinations. In such a situation, if we have to reform our education system, then we must change the existing assessment system first. The education system has collapsed under the burden of examinations and we need to revive it through innovative assessment practices.
“The examination system has been a matter of discussion by various commissions for ages in India. The Kothari Commission in 1964 stated that examinations at the primary stage should help students improve their achievement in basic skills and develop the right habits and attitudes,” he stated.
“On evaluation, the National Policy on Education 1986 stated that assessment of children's performance is an integral part of any process of teaching and learning. Therefore, examinations should be conducted as a part of a better educational strategy to bring qualitative improvement in education,” Deputy CM said.
“The National Education Policy 2020 also emphasised that the primary objective of assessment would indeed be for learning which will help the teacher, student and the entire school education system to continuously modify the teaching-learning methods for the all-round development of students,” he said, informing the importance of the National Education Policy 2020.
He said that despite several discussions and recommendations of the commissions, these were never implemented on the ground. This is the reason why children, parents and all the stakeholders in the education system are scared of examinations.
Sisodia said that through DBSE we made five major changes in the traditional teaching and evaluation system including regular assessment of students over the year instead of a 3-hour annual examination, adoption of new assessment methods.