Education News

Delhi End of sudden death era The abolition of Indian academia’s high stress, ‘sudden death’ final examination system — universally condemned by educationists but mysteriously durable — seems imminent at last. The Union ministry of human resource development has forwarded a proposal to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) and the 30 state examination boards to abolish the terminal and final examination system and replace it with a weekly or monthly grading system. If the school boards accept the proposal, perhaps as early as the next academic session, Indian students may well be able to bid adieu to the all-important nerve-wracking final exam and welcome shorter, less stressful tests. College students might also be brought under the purview of the proposed change. Working in a fast-forward mode, CBSE and NCERT have already fleshed out their examination reform proposals and according to CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, the board’s plan to reduce exam stress will be unveiled shortly. However, the new system will assume concrete shape only by May-end when representatives of boards of secondary education converge for an all-India convention. NCERT, which is addressing the issue through a national focus group on examination reform, hopes, according to its chief Krishna Kumar, to formally involve the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as university academics in its plan formulation exercise. “Examination stress within the student community is a real cause for worry. We need to and are taking a critical look at it. It’s more common than most people realise and is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently,” says B.S. Baswan, secretary, secondary and higher education in the Union HRD ministry. Seized of the issue, NCERT and the pan-India examination boards in particular are simultaneously examining other ideas, especially in relation to class X and XII boards. Suggestions under consideration include proposals to allow the use of calculators during exams; giving students a second chance to clear the boards in the form of supplementary exams; providing a support system to students by way of extra question reading time and giving greater weightage to internal assessments. ‘Partial achievement’ of students will be recognised as well, allowing them to stagger clearance of exams in installments rather than in one fell swoop. With over 10 million students writing school-leaving final exams every year, exam stress is a phenomenon that has assumed larger-than-life dimensions in India. According to a study conducted by the Delhi-based Hindustan Times, north India’s leading daily, nearly 70 percent of Indian students after class VIII experience severe academic stress, especially during exam time with nearly 10 percent having contemplated suicide at some point during their academic years. In addition, there were seven suicides and nine attempted suicides in and around Delhi during this year till March-end. However opinion in favour of replacing highly competitive final exams by continuous grading is not unanimous. Says Anubha Sawney, mother of two school-going teenage daughters: “Competitive exams are what give…