How NEP 2020 Changes the Nature of Exams and Assessment for Students?

The future of people and society is significantly influenced by education. The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) was launched in recognition of the need for a comprehensive restructuring of the Indian educational system. This holistic policy seeks to alter many facets of education, including how students are evaluated.

As opposed to being summative and focusing mostly on rote memorization skills, NEP 2020 aspires to change the nature of online exams to:

• More competency-based
• More formative and regular

How NEP 2020 has Revolutionised the Traditional Examination System?

• To support students who are performing poorly in comparison to their peers.
• A teacher provides learning activities and practical experiences to students depending on their skills and requirements, using the curriculum and teaching techniques used in the school.
• Instructors should have professional training in order to assist students in developing general abilities like collaboration, problem-solving, student management, communication, self-learning, self-management, imagination, critical thinking, and information technology use.
• To help students consolidate their foundational knowledge in a variety of courses, master learning processes, build their confidence, and improve their learning efficacy, teachers also develop tailored instructional courses with intensive remedial support.
• Remedial education helps students develop positive attitudes and values, establishes the foundation for lifelong learning, and gets them ready for further education and the workforce.

Moving Beyond Rote Learning:

The transition from rote learning to a competency-based approach is one of the major modifications made under NEP 2020. The policy places a strong emphasis on the value of conceptual understanding, analytical skills, and critical thinking.

NEP 2020 promotes students to gain a deeper grasp of subjects, developing a passion for learning rather than just pursuing good scores, in contrast to traditional tests that frequently place a priority on memorization and regurgitation of content.

Reduced Exam Stress:

The Indian educational system has long struggled with an excessive amount of exam-related pressure. By introducing a more adaptable and modular examination format, NEP 2020 seeks to lessen this burden.

It encourages the use of frequent formative online assessment tests that concentrate on the ongoing monitoring of a student's development, lightening the load of difficult summative tests. With reduced fear, students can now explore their subjects, which promotes a more holistic learning experience.

Embracing Technology

The policy is aware of how technology can revolutionise education. NEP 2020 encourages the use of innovative assessment methods such as online examination systems enabled by technology. Online examinations, computer-based assessments, AI-based online proctoring, and adaptive testing are some of the avenues through which technology can improve and simplify the assessment process.

This not only offers a more accurate and consistent evaluation but also gets students ready for the digital age and the abilities needed in a tech-driven society.

Focus on Internal Assessment:

NEP 2020 values teachers' contributions to evaluating students' performance. The policy places a strong emphasis on the value of teacher-conducted internal evaluations of student's progress. Teachers, who are actively involved in the learning process, can offer insightful information about a student's skills, areas of strength, and areas for development.

A student's entire performance can be evaluated more thoroughly when internal assessments are integrated with external evaluations.

Multi-Dimensional Assessment:

NEP 2020 emphasises the importance of a multi-dimensional assessment system. Traditional tests can place a lot of emphasis on a student's achievement in a single examination, which cannot give a complete picture of their academic potential.

The policy promotes the use of a more detailed evaluation framework that includes a range of assessment techniques, including group discussions, portfolios, project work, presentations, and practical demonstrations. This multifaceted method enables students to demonstrate their abilities, originality, and range of capabilities outside the bounds of a written exam.

Implementation of National Assessment Centre, PARAKH

PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) is set up as a standard-setting body under MHRD which fulfils the objectives of:

• Establishing benchmarks, rules, and standards for student evaluation.
• Tracking the country's progress in achieving its educational objectives.
• Assisting and encouraging school boards to change their assessment practises in accordance with NEP 2020.
• Conducting the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and managing the State Achievement Survey (SAS).
• Additionally, it will give school boards advice on the most recent research findings and evaluation patterns, as well as encourage board collaboration.
• Urging the schools to include traits like respect, cooperation, and sharing in their report cards.
• Our evaluations focus on competency and learning outcomes.
• Practise Tests on the students' app allow pupils to experience online tests.
• Students have access to both objective and subjective practice online exams for board exams, as well as comprehensive solutions.
• Access to online assessments on the students’ app.

Introduction of National Testing Agency

• Strives to provide high-quality common aptitude exams in science, languages, humanities, and the arts at least twice a year. These exams will also include a high-quality common aptitude test.
• Functions as a top-tier, knowledgeable, independent testing organisation for undergraduate and graduate admission, as well as fellowships in higher education.
• By using these universal entrance exams instead of creating their own entrance exams, institutions would significantly lessen the workload placed on students, colleges, and the overall educational system.

Each university and institution will be free to decide whether or not to use NTA exams for admission.

Changes in the Nature of the Report Cards

The progress or report card will be a comprehensive, 360-degree, multidimensional report that captures each learner's individuality in the affective, cognitive, and psychomotor domains as well as their progress.

Along with teacher evaluation, it will also cover the child's development in project- and inquiry-based learning, as well as peer and self assessments, quizzes, role plays, group projects, portfolios, etc.

In order to actively involve parents in their children's educational path, it will also be supplemented with parent-teacher conferences.

Implementation of New Assessment as per NEP 2020

• Creation of fresh assessment guidelines for each step of schooling.
• Enhancing teachers' abilities to conduct "assessment as learning" and "assessment for learning."
• Establishing a formative and adaptive assessment culture in the classroom.
• Creating question banks for competency-based tests with higher order skills.
• Developing the capacity of paper moderators and setters for new assessment patterns.
• Redesigning report cards for school-based assessments to let parents know how their children are doing.
• For the purpose of administering the state census tests in grades 3, 5, and 8, assessment patterns and evaluation methods must be developed.
• Creating a strategy to lessen the workload associated with exams by reviewing all policy suggestions in conjunction with boards of assessment.
• All states and UTs should develop IT-based tracking systems to monitor the academic progress of students in grades 1 through 12.
• By CBSE and other Boards of Assessment (BoAs), compartment exams have been renamed "Improvement exams," strengthened, and given lower stakes.
• For all Boards of Assessment (BoAs), the development of consistent norms, standards, and recommendations for assessment and evaluation for secondary education in accordance with the NCF 2020.