Yesterday when I came home from work, I found my younger brother, who is in 7th standard now, sitting with bundles of paper around him. With curiosity I asked him what these papers are about. He told me those papers were of his academic tests that were conducted throughout the year. He kept on adding papers to bundles and I started wondering exactly what purpose these tests are serving and how is any school able to keep record of each student with so many bundles of papers. The value addition of such tests is indeed a concern.
CCE (Continuous & Comprehensive Examination) is introduced in all CBSE schools for overall evaluation of students. The main purpose of CCE is to make teaching – learning experience tension free and enjoyable. Under this, tests are conducted on weekly basis. The syllabus for it will be that covered in respective weeks. The results of these tests show where students need more guidance and improvements. This in turn makes each and every student fully prepared for all kinds of evaluation. The other benefit is when students are frequently facing weekly evaluation they remain in continuous contact with studies. Unlike the olden days when students used to open books only few days prior to exam. The weekly tests draws student’ whole attention in studies and they never experience burden at the time of final exam as they are well acquainted with every nooks and corners of the syllabus.
But imagine if looking at all such advantages if any school decides to take weekly tests by means of pen and paper then it will be lot more cumbersome for students as well as teachers. Written tests will first of all drain out interest of students from study. Teachers will get weekly load of assessment in the form of bundles of paper on their table. This whole tiresome process takes much time and thus by the day you will get the previous week’s results you would be facing next weekly test. So students do not get the necessary time for improvements and they feel like a machine giving only tests irrespective of result. This directionless study will lead a student nowhere. Here schools should remember that CCE is designed for students and if they are not enjoying and willing for this then all the efforts are in vein. Efforts should be taken in the direction to that students will be excited for tests and it should satisfy their all doubts.
To avoid this scenario, schools can adapt to online examination. Online exam reduce the efforts from students and teachers as it is less tiring than written test. The quick analysis of such tests is the most important benefit. Students get the results as soon as they give tests. if we compare this to olden days where students used to get the results after one or two weeks of exam, they couldn’t actually remember the questions then how can we expect improvements from them in such situation. Quick analysis gives necessary time to students to see where they have gone wrong and how to avoid this in future. Getting every doubt solved at right time is the need and that is aptly achievable with online examination.
Here we should think from teacher’s standpoint also. If teachers are busy in meeting the deadlines to announce the results there is no time for them to analyze each and every student’s study graph. They already have enough headaches of conducting and evaluating tests each week so hardly any energy is left to revamp their methods as per the need. Online exam gives teachers that required time to decide future scope of action for every student.
When I was a student my biggest nightmare used to be like my pen’s ink is finished while writing exam, my pencil’s lead broke or even worse I forgot my stationary. Already one is under tension for question paper and such nightmares add unnecessary contribution to it. Now the positive stress is one thing but what will you call such state of mind. Wouldn’t it be nice if all such crap is eliminated and students are allowed to think about only exam? This is why online exams are gaining popularity among students for all the good reasons. It doesn’t require a single resource. All the disturbances are automatically eliminated. What more fascinating is the digital interface that online exams have makes it interesting for students.
An online exam is the most unbiased way of evaluation. It never discriminates between students. After all a digital system based evaluation is always better than an individual based evaluation. Even if we trust our faculties completely, we don’t have solution for human error. This is not the case with online exam as we know technology is most reliable source in today’s world.
At last I hope schools will think from all the perspectives and decide the most suitable option that is, online examination for their students.