Many schools which follow the international curriculum have criticised the State Education Department new 80-marks semester examination pattern.
Schools following international curriculum say there are better ways to examine a primary students’ skills
Smita Deshmukh/Shweta Shertukde
MUMBAI: Many schools which follow the international curriculum (which does not believe in written examinations for primary section students) have criticised the State Education Department new 80-marks semester examination pattern, whereby primary students have to answer three-hour long question paper.
Calling the move to introduce long, written exams for toddlers a regressive step, Lina Ashar, managing director and proprietor of Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd, which follows a pre-school and high-school system based on the Australian schooling pattern, said, “Children have different ways of expressing their knowledge. Some can write, others draw and some depict their knowledge via craft. So why insist on writing and shut out other forms?” she questioned.
With constant training of teachers and inputs from researchers to make their classrooms innovative, Ashar feels the winds of change will come to India soon. “With MNCs coming to India in a big way, there would be more demand for quality education. Change is inevitable now,” asserts Ashar.
Agrees Vandana Lulla, director, Poddar International School. “The state government’s examination pattern just tests a student’s memory skill, speed and accuracy level, but fails to understand the knowledge skill of the student. But, international curriculum believes in testing the knowledge skills of the students and gives less importance to other factors.”
Various international boards also follows a system of short tests of 10 marks each with limited syllabus. “The short test involves application-based questions, which are objective in nature. Thus, the exam pattern implemented by the boards enhances the student’s creative skills,” said Lulla.
Many global education boards follow a specific pattern for students of standard II and I, which consists of evaluating them on basis of debate, project work carried out in the classroom, inquiry based learning and graphic organisation. Educationists feel this pattern, with less use of eye and hand co-ordination, is good since these organs are less developed among the young students of standard I and II.
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