Author: Shagufta Shazadi
Hira is a pseudonym given to the victim
“You have to pay Rs.1500/- against each paper for reviewing and only your marks will be recounted in the concerned papers”. More than a shocking statement for Hira because having 5 siblings belonging to the lower-income family; it was easy to say than managing Rs.4500, to get the review of three papers simultaneously. A brilliant student obtaining consistently higher scores in the previous school-based examinations. She was confident in her attempt in all three papers in the board-level examination too but not in the result she received, contrary to her expectations, unfortunately. Her parents were bearing Hira in their mind as a doctor therefore she had burnt midnight oils to get admission in a medical college and to let the dream of her parents come true. However, to her dismay, all of a sudden, a dreadful result put an axe over her dream as well as on her trust over the examination system. Hence, there was no way out than managing the said amount to be able to review the papers and leaving no stone unturned to fulfil her ultimate dream”.
Getting examination
papers rechecked is quite an ordeal for a candidate. Only those can feel the
pain of paper rechecking troubles who have been through this process. This is
not only the story of Hira, but several other students also bear this agony every year. Every
second day of result declaration by examination boards bring several wretched reactions
from students. “We receive hundreds of students’ applications to review their
papers every year” talking to a focal person from one of the public examination
board informed me so. Shockingly, a
national newspaper reported that a board of intermediate and secondary
education received 13,000 applications to re-examined the papers in the year
2016. Similarly, a huge number of students observed a strike demonstration in
the year 2016, against inefficiency in marking by an examination board. In some cases, students get higher marks than
the marks allocated to the questions they have actually attempted. This means it
doesn’t matter if students have leftover questions un-attempted.
The critical
questions to ponder on here are as to why students do not trust their result
and decide to get their exam papers reviewed? What measures can be done to
raise the level of students’ trust in the result? How can we ensure an authentic
and valid result? During the master's program at the AKU-IED I got an exposure
to visiting one of public examination boards. I observed, in the current
scenario, that teachers are recruited on an ad hoc basis for paper marking
randomly. For each subject, panels
of 20 to 25 or sometimes more examiners are selected for marking papers, with
one head examiner. The head examiner’s job is only to recalculating the marks
given to each paper by each checker. Each checker gets packets of papers (vary
in number) to mark, the more rapidly examiner marks; the more he/she gets
papers to mark. Ultimately, examiner generates more money for the papers he/she
marks. Hence, an expert can easily mark up to 800 papers in a day, definitely
with astonishing speed (also findings from a research study).
The irony is that they do not have a uniform paper
marking mechanism. Each individual checker marks the paper using his/her individual
understanding, judgment and expertise. An examiner’s response shocked me when
he was asked “what he knows about marking scheme and how does he do the marking?
The examiner responded “iss ka sahi jawab hamaray damagh mein hota he” the
right answer to the question that we are marking, is in our mind (pointing
to own head). An individual with no assessment literacy, without a marking
scheme, is dispensing hundreds of students’ answers. This situation compels one
to ask whether it is fair enough to decide the students’ future based on
such worst marking process. Will, each candidate get the right marks assessed by
examiners with no assessment literacy? This hardly ensures objectivity and
hardly brings valid result. Rather it allows dilemmas of student-anxiety,
stress, depression and disappointment from the education system. In such a scenario, low grades in their exam lose students’
confidence in their own abilities and become de-motivated to continue studies
in next grades.
Despite well-framed educational policies
that strongly enjoins reforming examination system; no commendable improvement
can be observed anywhere in the public examination boards. I believe that the educational
system of this country in dire need of massive reforms in its prevalent public examination system. An
assessment system must inform teaching and learning processes commensurate with
the requisite standard of marking the papers. In order to bring reforms and make examination effective,
it is necessary to educate relevant human resource and build the capacity
through training within the examination boards. Those who do paper
marking should be selected on the basis of their expertise and mastery over the
subject as well as their teaching experience in a particular class. Selected
examiners should be equipped with marking scheme and rubric and extensive
training on their use shall be given. To make more consistent marking, and marking with less frequent errors,
double marking of randomly selected papers shall be made and feedback from senior
marker shall be necessarily provided to markers.
The essence of examination is to inform classroom teaching
and students learning; It’s not only about judging/ranking students abilities.
In nutshell, the examination system and its efficacy is a considerable factor in
determining the students’ and ultimately the nation’s future. If the education
policies put in place by the government are implemented and assessment literacy
is ensured then there would not be needed to re-examine a paper. This
should be kept in mind that examination
boards are not to extort money in the name of remarking, rather, it is to
improve classroom teaching and students’ learning. If marking procedures are
not taken seriously, it will result in spoiling the future of students.
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