Remodelling entrance tests

So what is the remedy? Clearly, it is futile to pontificate on the need for parents to be enlightened when the societal pressures are so enormous. There is however one innovation which I believe could save the students from a lot of anguish and repetitive examinations. This is the idea of a National Level Aptitude Test which could serve as an independent and reliable benchmark to grade students. What is proposed is a test like the Scholastic Aptitude Test SAT in the US which serves as an important input into admission considerations of universities in the US. Such a test, together with the result of school leaving examination and any other input like interviews etc. can then be used to develop a criterion for admitting students to various institutions and various courses. For example, IIT8217;s could decide to take the top 2,000 students in sciences who also have an excellent school record.

I suggest two national level tests one general aptitude test after 10th standard and a second test in 12th standard. This could be specialised and one could have one for each subject. The tests will be held on a common course pattern which will also help standardise various board examinations that exist at the moment in the country. Invariably there is a tendency for each board to look down on other boards and in the absence of any procedure for standardisation, the dispute continues. The standardisation will also motivate different regional boards to formulate their syllabi and develop their examinations in a form which will help their students to compete at the national level.

The first step in this direction would be to set up an autonomous national level body for administering these tests. This body could then appoint or coopt state level institutes like the State Education Institutes to serve as representatives. The basic tenet in the test would be complete centralisation of the preparation and design of the question papers. This would be essential for reasons of confidentiality.

The test could be held at the district level or even at the level of a sub-division. Given that the districts are now connected through NicNet, it would be easy to monitor the centres. The District Education Officer or a similar high level functionary could be appointed the in-charge of each centre. The National Level Body would transmit the question paper or many versions, if needed be over the NicNet and the district authorities could conduct the examination. The whole paper has to be designed in such a way that it could be graded electronically with an optical character reader and thus the grading could also be done at the state level.

The tests could then be analysed statistically and a reliable, reasonable and robust national benchmark could be obtained. The analysis will also provide an invaluable tool for education researchers since there could be city, district, state and regional comparisons which could be of immense use to planners and administrators.

Given the enormity of the task involved, the logistical and administrative details of the scheme will obviously need to be thrashed out. However, given the advances in information technology and the communications, the task is not unmanageable. What is required is the necessary will on the part of the educational planners to implement such a scheme. It is time we started debating the course our tertiary education is taking if we want to really benefit from the enormous amounts of resources spent on it both by the state and individuals.