KARACHI: In a classroom, most believe that the only two entities present are the students and the teacher instructing them. However, panellists at a discussion held by the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development (IED), introduced another potent, looming presence that has a large impact on the attitudes and behaviours of both students and teachers — examinations or assessments.

The panel discussion, titled ‘Reforming Pakistan’s exam culture’, brought together policymakers, researchers, activists, commentators and teachers who debated how the quality of examinations and assessment is a global issue and not just specific to Pakistan, and the ever-expanding ‘exam culture’ is distancing students from the true purpose of education.

The discussion was part of IED’s 11th annual conference, ‘Assessment and Evaluation in the Global South’, where over two days, over 300 attendees from the spheres of research, academia, policymaking and activism participated in engaging and transforming discourses and practices related to assessment and evaluation.

Shehzad Jeeva, director of the Aga Khan University Examination Board, spoke about how real learning needs to take place in a class. “Real learning is the ability to adopt what you know and know how to do, and adapt it under an ever-changing variety of circumstances. Who should decide real learning? In my opinion it is the state, through a national curriculum. Once that is done it is the social obligation, and responsibility of teachers and schools to deliver and implement the same.”

In this process one of the controlling factors is examinations as assessment is the driving force for learning, he said. “If the benchmark of an examination is to rote learn, then the teacher in the classroom will prepare students for memorisation and the learning habits of students will become the same for their entire lives.”

He explained that an examination is part of social accountability and must be fair, valid and reliable which, however, is not the situation in the local context. Just some of the issues plaguing local boards include rote learning culture, cheating, and leaking of examination papers which must be tackled head-on by all stakeholders.

Alia Shahid, secretary, Sindh universities and boards department, spoke about the need to reform the environment of local education boards before any real change can be introduced. “The first step is a governance issue. We have a task force to galvanise change however, we need a very clear political and administrative will to develop a critical consensus and not allow any form of interference that will restrict the development of this area.”

Impact of social environment

Faisal Bari, columnist and senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives shared research conducted that revealed that the more closed off the social environment is of a student, the more restricted are his moral, educational and social identities.

He also said that many of those who were part of these researches explicitly expressed the desire for another shot at an education, one that sadly the country’s educational, economic and social fabric does not provide or facilitate. “Many who had dropped out or were forced out for one reason or the other from education, now many years later regret [it]. But there is no way to go back and there are no second chances given in Pakistani system as once you drop out from education it is very hard to come back. Formal structures are not as strong, going as a private candidate is not easy; there is no facilitation for such children.”

Fauzia Shamim of Ziauddin University shared examples of how students have come to her repeatedly at the end of the term, begging for extra marks. According to her reforming learning and teaching practices is very important, and for that we need to change the way we give feedback in class.

The sign that a teacher has been successful is when she has allowed her students to become independent enough that they work in a classroom as if the teacher does not exist; that she has become redundant over time. This was shared by Maryann Drea-Shaikha, assistant headmistress at KGS. “We need to raise standards in the classroom; in a classroom the teacher should be the dominating force and not the assessment.”

Participants at the conference urged those in power to work on introducing a variety of assessment methods as focusing on standardised tests alone would only reinforce the prevailing culture of ‘teaching to the test’.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018