Highlights of committee report

Updated on: Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The following are the recommendations of the committee set up by the Kerala State Higher Education Council to suggest reforms in university examinations in the State.

A suitable template with guidelines relating to the scope and structure of the syllabus statement of each separate course should be prepared and its use made mandatory.

The duties and responsibilities of Boards of Studies in each area should be amended to include a definite provision for syllabus preparation in keeping with the guidelines. Administrative and financial provision should be made for workshop type sessions for syllabus development, with the option of including qualified resource persons as special invitees. Manuals and library resources should be available at the workshop venues.

Members of Boards should be given orientation/training relating to curriculum design and educational technology. A permanent facility for this purpose should be set up by the university

The syllabus statement for each course (issued by the relevant Board) should include a detailed note on the recommended assessment scheme, especially the internal component.

All teachers need to be given training in the areas of assessment and educational technology. A long-term strategy for training teachers in assessment with a special focus on the internal/ in-term component should be developed and implemented. Various modes could be used: district- or cluster-level workshops, regular orientation and refresher courses of the Academic Staff College, web site-based materials and e-mail discussion groups. The specific needs of different subject areas should be recognised and addressed.

College departments should maintain an up-to-date reference file relating to assessment rules and guidelines. College libraries should have a collection of manuals and reference books, CDs on assessment, curriculum, and educational technology for the use of teachers. Subject-wise collections of question papers and internal assessment (IA) tasks along with critical comments should also be obtained.

Question papers should be designed to cover as wide a range of objectives as feasible and graded levels of complexity/challenge.

Variations in the physical structure of questions papers (and answer booklets) should be tried out. These may include: separate sections for objective-type questions, short answer and essay questions, restricted response space to encourage precision, timed sections, flip reduced answer sheets.

Paper setting by teams through modularized setting, and section-wise marking by markers in teams should be introduced.

Small-scale and experimental question banks should be set up in selected departments for selected courses.

Measures to maintain the integrity of the system should be reviewed and extended at the CoE level. These may include: parallel versions of question papers; conducting examinations in-camera; video-recording of opening packets of question papers; and packing of answer books.

Procedures for dealing with unfair practices relating to internal assessment should be put in place at the college level. Prevention through ensuring transparency in grading, attending to convenience aspects, and education regarding plagiarism should be attended to.

Under the head of student welfare a component specifically concerned with examination-related issues should be established. Accessibility to students should be a priority for counselling activities.

A scheme to support innovation and experimentation in the area of assessment at various levels, administratively and financially, should be formulated. Potential awardees should be reached through vigorous publicity.

Research on examinations should be taken up at each university and selected colleges, according to a scheme developed through consultation to avoid duplication.

Highlights of committee report

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