Tamil Nadu mulls new student assessment system in State universities
The new assessment and examination system was recommended by a panel comprising experts and academicians, which was constituted by the state government.
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CHENNAI: In a bid for more transparency, the Tamil Nadu government is mulling to introduce a new assessment system for students in the State-run universities besides improving the examination system. The new assessment and examination system was recommended by a panel comprising experts and academicians, which was constituted by the state government.
Stating that evolving a good and transparent assessment system with a variety of assessment processes is essential, a senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity, said student assessment enables instructors to measure the effectiveness of their teaching by linking student performance to specific learning objectives.
"As a result, professors will be able to adopt effective teaching choices and revise ineffective ones in their coaching method", he added.
Pointing out that new and emerging technologies will be used, with proper checks and balances at each stage, from registration for examination to preparation of assessment instruments and evaluation, he said a large online repository of assessment and examination models is to be created for all subjects, consulting experience experts and academicians.
The official said that professors and teaching staff should be enabled and encouraged to contribute regularly to the repository and state recognition should be provided for innovations in assessment methodology.
"A combination of subjective, internal and continuous evaluation by the course teacher with objective and external evaluation at the terminal stage of the course will have to be designed", he said adding "transparency in both internal and external assessments will be codified with checks and balances in the system. Concurrent testing of standards of assessment and academic audit will be embedded in the assessment process".
He said in all the universities, an autonomous board of examination should be established that directly functions under the direction of the vice-chancellor.
"The examination board will be self-sustaining financially and it should function establishing credibility of assessment in terms of both objectivity and appropriateness of assessment", he said and pointed out "This requires adoption of modern technology in assessment and a flexible system of Human Resource Management".
