UGC plans new
way to evaluate students — through poster-making, quizzes & essays
UGC hopes the
new evaluation method will wean college students away from rote learning and
help develop critical abilities.
KRITIKA SHARMA
9 October, 2019 10:42 am IST
New Delhi: The
evaluation of undergraduate students in general courses across colleges and
universities is soon set to change from a fixed pen and paper exam-based method
to a continuous evaluation system.
As a result,
students will have make paper presentations, take part in group discussions and
write unit tests at the end of each chapter apart from the year-end exam.
The University
Grants Commission (UGC) has prepared the new evaluation scheme, which it will
soon circulate to all institutions. Under this scheme, universities will also
have the freedom to do away with the year-end examination if they want.
According to
the proposed evaluation method, 70 per cent weightage will be given to
formative assessment that will include activities such as quizzes, projects,
group discussions, paper presentations, essays, posters and other similar work.
Summative
assessment, which was so far 100 per cent of the evaluation, will now be
limited to 30 per cent. It will include unit tests, semester-end and year-end
examinations.
Most colleges
as of now have only year-end and semester exams; they do not continuously
assess students. With the new evaluation method, UGC wants to ensure the
institutions move towards a continuous assessment method.
“The idea of
moving towards a continuous evaluation method is a move away from rote learning
and to make learning interesting for students,” UGC Vice-Chairman Bhushan
Patwardhan told ThePrint. “The new evaluation scheme has been formulated by a
committee of experts appointed by the commission and will soon be made official
by the HRD minister.”
The committee
behind proposal
The committee
that suggested the evaluation reforms was headed by professor M.M. Salunkhe,
president, Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
Its continuous
evaluation idea, which UGC is attempting to replicate in the higher education
system, was also tried in the school education level in the form of the
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCEA).
Under CCEA,
students up to Class 10 did not have to write exams but were evaluated
throughout the year. The idea, however, failed at the school level and
examinations had to be brought back, doing away with the no-detention policy.
Some private
universities such as the Azim Premji University and Ashoka University already
follow the continuous evaluation process. Students are evaluated throughout the
year on the basis of classwork, projects, paper presentations among other
things. Their evaluation is not limited to only a term-end examination.
‘Will be tough
to replicate in colleges’
Rajesh Jha, a
Delhi University teacher felt that something like this would be difficult to
replicate in a government institution.
“One has to see
the size of our classrooms; there are 60 students in one class,” Jha told
ThePrint. “How are we going to be able to do internal assessment with things
like group discussions and poster making with them?
“What are we
going to teach the students anyway by poster-making? If the government wants a
curriculum that makes students more creative and develops their critical
ability, they should assess this scheme properly before implementation,” he
added.
While students
in private universities that already have a continuous evaluation method seemed
happy with the arrangement, those in government institutions seemed apprehensive.
“We keep
interacting with students and they tell us that they don’t want internal
assessment. They want 100 per cent weightage for exams,” Jha said.
Source : https://theprint.in
