Why we need to look closely at Tamil Nadu’s Class 12 and Karnataka’s Class 10 results

A balanced assessment architecture, encompassing system, school and classroom-based assessments can be used to drive accountability, planning and improvement of foundational learning outcomes under the National Mission

File photo of school girls checking their results after declaration of class 10th and 12th exam result. (PTI)

Written by Pooja Nagpal

Tamil Nadu’s Class 12 and Karnataka’s Class 10 (SSLC) results are out today. Both of these public examinations bring back into focus the importance of large-scale student assessments for policymaking. These assessments are meant to provide important information about the education system with regard to issues of access, quality, efficiency and equity. The data from these assessments can also point towards patterns emerging in student learning across classes.

The information gathered can then be used by stakeholders to make decisions about framing educational policies and practices, aiming to improve student’s learning outcomes. Large-scale assessments are generally categorised as national, sub-national and cross-national (regional/international) assessments. These assessments are uniform and standardised in content, administration and scoring procedures — and thereby frequently referred to as standardised assessments. They are generally sample-based, administered at school (National Achievement Surveys) or at home (the Annual Status of Education Report); curriculum-based or not; and the system stakeholders including teachers and schools may have a stake in the outcome of the assessment. However, they assume lesser significance for students.

Currently, there are two large-scale learning assessments conducted in India at the elementary stage. Pratham Foundation’s research unit, the ASER Centre, has brought out its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) since 2005. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been conducting the National Achievement Survey (NAS) periodically since 2001 for Classes III, V and VIII. These two sources are frequently cited in discussions of learning outcomes in India.

The ASER survey is designed to generate district, state, and national-level estimates of children’s schooling status for all children aged 3-16, and estimates of basic reading and arithmetic ability for all children aged 5-16. ASER’s objective is to reach all rural districts each year. It is designed as a household-based survey so as to include all children: Those enrolled in government schools, private schools, other types of schools, and those not enrolled in school. On the other hand, the purpose of NAS is to monitor the health of the country’s education system. NAS provides a “snapshot of what students know and can do” in classes III, V and VIII (since 2001) and class X (since 2015) in key curricular areas like language, maths, EVS, etc. It is a system-level assessment, that is, it summarises students’ achievements at national, state and district levels to showcase the strength and quality of the education system in the country. It is different from summative assessments like the usual end-of-year examinations that result in pass-fail decisions for students or formative assessments that guide classroom instructions on a day-to-day basis. NAS does not provide scores for individual students/schools.

Therefore, while both ASER and NAS are large-scale assessments of students’ learning, they are not designed with the same objective in mind. They are very different in terms of sampling, test design and content, and assessment methodology. Since the estimates generated by these assessments neither cover the same populations nor assess the same content, their results are not comparable.

Any large-scale assessment of student learning needs to address educational policy issues and priorities. According to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the highest priority of the education system is the achievement of universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary school by 2025, along with robust systems of continuous assessment and monitoring to track the progress of foundational learning outcomes. To this end, the Ministry of Education and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducted a National-level Foundational Learning Study (FLS) in March 2022. The study aimed to assess the student’s baseline skills in foundational literacy and numeracy for class III across all states and union territories in India, and establish reading and numeracy benchmarks across 20 languages.

Currently, there are two large-scale learning assessments conducted in India at the elementary stage. Pratham Foundation’s research unit, the ASER Centre, has brought out its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) since 2005. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been conducting the National Achievement Survey (NAS) periodically since 2001 for Classes III, V and VIII. These two sources are frequently cited in discussions of learning outcomes in India.

The ASER survey is designed to generate district, state, and national-level estimates of children’s schooling status for all children aged 3-16, and estimates of basic reading and arithmetic ability for all children aged 5-16. ASER’s objective is to reach all rural districts each year. It is designed as a household-based survey so as to include all children: Those enrolled in government schools, private schools, other types of schools, and those not enrolled in school. On the other hand, the purpose of NAS is to monitor the health of the country’s education system. NAS provides a “snapshot of what students know and can do” in classes III, V and VIII (since 2001) and class X (since 2015) in key curricular areas like language, maths, EVS, etc. It is a system-level assessment, that is, it summarises students’ achievements at national, state and district levels to showcase the strength and quality of the education system in the country. It is different from summative assessments like the usual end-of-year examinations that result in pass-fail decisions for students or formative assessments that guide classroom instructions on a day-to-day basis. NAS does not provide scores for individual students/schools.

Therefore, while both ASER and NAS are large-scale assessments of students’ learning, they are not designed with the same objective in mind. They are very different in terms of sampling, test design and content, and assessment methodology. Since the estimates generated by these assessments neither cover the same populations nor assess the same content, their results are not comparable.

Any large-scale assessment of student learning needs to address educational policy issues and priorities. According to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the highest priority of the education system is the achievement of universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary school by 2025, along with robust systems of continuous assessment and monitoring to track the progress of foundational learning outcomes. To this end, the Ministry of Education and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducted a National-level Foundational Learning Study (FLS) in March 2022. The study aimed to assess the student’s baseline skills in foundational literacy and numeracy for class III across all states and union territories in India, and establish reading and numeracy benchmarks across 20 languages.

The writer is Associate Director, Government Partnerships, Central Square Foundation