Please assess me rightly!

It was mid-March and everything was near to be frosted. He came home rushing having taken his last paper of grade 10. It was a moment of jubilation, freedom and relief though ephemeral as the worries of the exam result were destined to begin soon. He had planned to sleep for days; chat with friends by infinite time-lengths; meet and eat and do all that he was halted from doing while those nerves wrecking days of exam preparations perpetuated. His temporary relief was cut short soon expecting the worries of how his result would look like. Expectations of parents, siblings, friends and animosities of adversaries danced around him and he sometimes felt he was doomed while at times he felt he was at the epoch of joy. His destiny now lay in few hands of some unknown people.

He did not know that his papers after being coded were packed in 80 kilo empty sugar bags and dumped in some god forsaken basement of the examination board of public sector. He did not know his papers were to go for checking in such clumsy hands that would superficially look through the papers and mark him based on some mercurial standards. The checker would be paid for checking per paper and he would therefore check as many as he could not! It is said Greed hath a Curse and so the greed of the checker was soon to curse him — the noble Exam taker.

An effective system of examination and assessment is stressed hard in the Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2020-25 while also placing the grey situation that currently exists in the twin realms of examinations and assessment. Though the Balochistan Education Assessment Commission was established in 2019, its actual working is yet to begin. On the even more disappointing side, the Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BBISE) would require high scale reforms and systemic overhauling.

BBISE was established in 1977 with an organisational structure that continues to be the same as developed at the time of inception. Though in 2019, the new Act was brought in but it seems to be the shadow of the erstwhile 1977 Act. A review of BBISE was conducted in year 2014 but the recommendations were let in cold storage. The Board does not have any in-house capacity to manage quality of papers with a realm of assessment specialists as empty zone.

Examinations-curricular requirements are disjointed with examination papers failing badly to fulfil curricular requirements, both in content and in critical thinking. Examiners engaged by BBISE have no training in developing papers or test items in line with the needs of the curriculum and system requirements. There is an immense need to transform to curriculum-based papers which must ensure asses the critical-analytical ability.

This will require a change in the paper development process and also to strengthen the capacity of the Board. The need for minimising the human manipulation which is the highest at this time needs to be mechanised. The system of secrecy ensured by the system and not by individuals has to be guaranteed. The use of technology has to be grossly placed in the BBISE systems and processes to ensure merit and actual assessment.

This change for assessing and basing the entire realm of examination to ‘critical and analytical bases’ has to be gradual as this will require a whole system input relays. The teaching-learning process would be centred which would require to engage both teachers and students immensely and intimately closer.

The role of Balochistan Education Assessment Commission has to be realised within the framework of examination and assessment. For this the Commission has to make inroads in the entire mainframe of the education sector affecting both teachers, students and administrators equally.

The BBISE has to be reformed on immediate grounds to enable the students compete on national and international levels. An effective BBISE would mean a sturdy watchdog informing the education sector over its weaknesses and required actions.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2023.

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