NOTES ON EXAMINATION BOARDS The Secondary Education Commission (1952) articulated the need for broadening the domain

of examination system in the country : The examinations today dictate the curriculum instead of following it, prevent any experimentation, hamper proper treatment of subjects and sound methods of teaching, foster a dull uniformity rather than originality, encourage the average pupil to concentrate too rigidly on too narrow a field, thus help him to develop wrong values in education. Pupil assesses education in terms of success in examinations ---nullifying its real purpose. Education Commission (1964-66) explicitly came out with stated roles and functions of Boards of School Education

To initiate and carry on the process within the programme for school improvement, adequate machinery at the State level is needed for defining, revising and evaluating educational standards, expected as well as attained. A suitable organization at the national level is also needed to stimulate, co ordinate and guide this work (Para 10.54, P. 267).

In each State, a State Board of School Education should be established and it should take over the functions and responsibilities of the existing Boards of Secondary Education and allied agencies (Para 10.64, P. 269). The State Board of School Education will be responsible for the following functions. o It will advise the State Government in all matters relating to school education; o It will prescribe conditions for recognition of primary and secondary schools in terms of teachers, curricula, equipment and other educational facilities; o It will grant recognition to secondary schools desiring to send candidates for its examinations and to arrange for their periodical inspection. o It will prescribe curricula for all school classesfrom Class I to Class XIIand textbooks for the examinations conducted by it. o It will conduct public examinations at the end of Classes X and XI/XII and such other examinations as may be entrusted to it by the State Government. o It will conduct special examinations such as those for talent search or award of scholarships.

We would like the Board to be in charge of the entire school stage for purposes of curricula (Para 10.66, P. 269-270).

NPE and POA ( 1992) Public examinations will continue to be held only at the levels of classes X and XII; Decentralisation of the operation involved in the conduct of examinations to make the system work more effective; School Boards in certain States have set up a number of sub-centres to decentralise the conduct of examinations. Adoption of similar measures by other States will be pursued; In the event of decentralisation as indicated above, the State Boards of School Education would continue to get the question papers set and printed, consolidate the results of examinations and also undertake test checks on random basis of the functioning of the sub-centres; and Spot evaluation of answer scripts. integrating the process of evaluation with teaching and learning, several long- term reforms: The Boards of Education will lay down the levels of attainment expected at classes V, VIII, X and XII; The Boards will also prescribe the learning objectives corresponding to these levels of attainment in terms of knowledge and comprehension, communication, skills in the application of knowledge, and the ability to learn; Schemes of evaluation consisting of examinations to test those aspects of learning which can be assessed through formal examinations, and the procedure for assessing those aspects which cannot be tested through such an examination, will be developed; Abilities and proficiencies, which can and should be assessed through institutional evaluation, will be identified and procedures evolved for such evaluation; The development of schemes of evaluation is a continuing process. To provide professional support to this process, the Boards of Education will consider setting up a Consortium for initiating research and development in evaluation procedures and in the conduct of examinations; For performing this task, the Consortium will adopt selected schools as pilot centres and will hold examinations and award certificates for the students of such schools; Before question papers are set, a detailed design will be evolved indicating the weightage to be given to various areas of content, types of questions and the objectives of teaching/learning; Along with external examinations, continuous institutional evaluation of scholastic and non-scholastic aspects of education

will be introduced; Evaluation of students' performance will move towards cumulative grading system; In the big States, the possibility of establishing more than one Board of Education will be considered, so that the number of students to be examined by one Board does not exceed one lakh; and Procedures will be developed for the appointment of Chairmen/Secretaries of Boards of Education and Controllers of Examinations to inspire confidence among public. One may infer that the Boards of School Education though were established with a broader vision to play leadership role in addressing the issue of access, equity and quality of school education and the State Boards of School Education were established with an expectation to bring improvement in secondary school system but largely the Boards remained regulatory bodies for examinations. Task Force Report on Remodelling of School Education Boards (with Amrik Singh as its chairman), Largely for historical reasons, School Education Boards have looked upon themselves mainly as examining bodies and little more. Consequently the Boards have never functioned as organizations, which were responsible for secondary education in the complete sense of the word

CABE (2005) set a vision for the country to provide high quality secondary education to all Indian adolescent girls and boys up to the age of 16 by 2015, and up to the age of 18 by 2020.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATION-ALSO CAPTURED BY NCF (2005) "it will be necessary to reconstruct and redesign examination system with attributes like flexibility where a student can achieve mastery learning in a flexible time frame and accumulate credits; eliminating power tests (fixed duration), adopt continuous and comprehensive evaluation. The practice of mark sheets indicating marks in certain subjects must be replaced by a portfolio that would accommodate a students performance in a variety of domains like life skills, academic/non-academic and vocational subjects, personal qualities, etc. The portfolio should be comprehensive, revealing the total being of the student (CABE 2005:18).