Tamil Nadu to have new education assessment model
- 01 June, 2019
A new education assessment may find root in the Tamil Nadu education curriculum to equip students to be competent and go beyond scoring marks alone. Aimed at improving the learning assessment and to redefine the objective of the assessment itself, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has joined hands with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), American Institute of Research (AIR) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to develop a road map to transform the existing assessment methodologies.Using a two-year-long capacity building programme called ‘Strengthening Systemic Capacity on Learning Assessment and Use of Data for Improving Learning’, the council plans to analyse the strengths and pitfalls of the current testing and assessment model used in the State in the first phase.
Ratna Dhamija, of AIR, said that their aim was to develop a model that will enhance the competency of students and enable them to handle changes, which will be based on their application skills.
The goal of the assessment programme was to include training state education staff in the key features of high-quality assessment design, development, implementation, analysis, reporting and data use. The programme is said to help educators to come up with reliable ways to quantify outcomes and record them systematically. The programme is also said to help build a community of specialists leading to sustainable evolution of assessment models in the future.
Through the course of two years, the SCERT will conduct two tests and collect data, based on which assessment pattern will be created. “We have narrowed the study to Classes VII and IX. We are starting with three subjects, Mathematics, Tamil and English,” an official from SCERT said adding that towards the end of two years, a pilot study of the new assessment model will be conducted in four districts.
The official stated that government schools have been chosen to take part in the programme and based on the outcome of this programme, a new assessment methodology will be integrated into the State’ education system.
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