INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Right from the menace of coaching which creates inequity among students to grade inflation in Board exams to assessment challenges, Amit
The government of India has recently entrusted ETS, which delivers global tests such as TOEFL, GRE, Praxis and TOEIC, to set up PARAKH
Excerpts from the interview:What is ETS' role in PARAKH?PARAKH will be an independent organisation affiliated to the education ministry and
It will be looking into three major areas-large scale assessment like the National Achievement Survey, school-based assessments and thirdly
First, we will help assess where things are currently, and then we will start to develop some norms and guidelines together.What are the
challenges in assessments?There is a lot of diversity in how education is delivered in India and assessments help teachers understand where
What is the ability to read in your language of instruction and what is the level of maths and other numeracy skills that you have
Those foundational skills are not anywhere near what they need to be for a country as large as India
With 600 million people under the age of 30, it has such an opportunity to serve not only the human capital in India for supporting growth
and candidly for the world
To build foundational skills you need better assessments
We will not wait for one semester or one year, but instead will do them every week, or month, what we call in our education management
industry formative assessments
We want to uplift schools and have more equity in schools.How to tackle the menace of coaching?It's upon us as parents, schools, and the
government to invest more in career exploration exercises and programmes
That allows students to take time to think
Parents also need to be more open to alternatives beyond the traditional areas of medicine and engineering.Coaching is a complex thing - on
one hand we all know why coaching industry exists, because parents help prepare their kids but as a society it also creates a lot of
inequity because you have parents who can't afford coaching and are at a disadvantage from a family that can, and that inequity leads to
inter-generational inequity
That's where PARAKH comes in to improve assessments with public and private schools and raise the quality of outcomes in schools which will
take the pressure off families.Your opinion on competitive inflation of board exam marks?Grade inflation is a global problem because the
intention of many of these Boards is to give a differentiated competitive advantage for their students
But reality is often the opposite as they are giving the impression that they are ready when they may not be fully ready
The answer lies in going beyond a single number or metric, and really looking at a broad portfolio of skills
We need to have a breakdown of the skill levels of individuals and then have that normalised by some kind of moderation.Should undergraduate
admissions be based on class XII marks?We at ETS and the industry generally are now moving to a more holistic approach where we are looking
at what we call the ABCs - affective skills, behavioural skills and cognitive skills
Most tests just look at cognitive skills which are reasoning and problem solving
But behavioural skill shows how you apply that knowledge to a real-world situation, and affective skill reveals how you really show up,
manage emotions and collaborate
