Entrance Exams - What alternative does the government have instead of postponing?

Since the COVID-19 has been declared as Pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO), there is a sense of fear and panic all around the globe. Government of India imposed lockdown and taking all the possible precautionary steps to curb the spread of the virus which includes shutting down all educational institutes, vacating hostels, postponing entrance examinations, convocation ceremonies, and more.

Student Safety while conducting exams

Entrance exams such as JEE and NEET were postponed multiple times in 2020 to avoid spread of virus in student community but now many voices are coming in support to conduct exams with view of “Life must go on”. Amid the increasing spread of virus in the country post lockdown, close to 16 lakhs students are appearing for NEET - UG and 8.58 lakhs students are appearing for JEE Mains exam. Ensuring safety by taking social distancing with appropriate hygiene measures of total 27 lakhs students plus approximately 1 lakh teacher supervisors across states is a big challenge. How many exam centers are well prepared for such health and safety measures is a question.

How postponing / cancelling entrance exams will affect students?

Aspirants prepare for entrance exams like JEE and NEET at least for a year in order to secure good ranking for admission in good institutions. These students work rigorously to achieve their goal. Postponing or Cancellation of entrance exams will affect these students as their preparation for whole year will go into vain. Cancellation of such entrance exams will have devastating effect on merit entering into institutions hence it should be the last option to be considered.

Recently IIT Delhi Director Mr. V Ramgopal Rao said, “Any further delay in conducting entrance exams JEE and NEET will have ‘serious repercussions’ not only on the academic calendar but also on the career of bright students”. Hence further delay in conducting medical and engineering entrance exams will lead to a 'zero academic year. In this scenario it is inevitable to explore options available with the government instead of postponing the entrance exams further.

Options for conducting entrance exams without postponing them further:

1. Home-based Online Proctored Exam:

Government can leverage online proctoring services to enable students to take exams from home. Such form of online exams relies on the internet and lets students take the exam at their own location. While online assessments looks like viable option to be explored, there is concern that they could increase inequalities due to lack of Internet access and laptop / desktop computers with all students, in addition to their cost.

2. Conducting Exams in staggered manner

Government can consider conducting examinations with more number of exam centers and in higher number of shifts with lesser number of students in each shift with proper crowd control mechanisms to avoid risk of spread of disease.

3. Ensuring safety at Exam centers

It should be mandated that exams to be conducted in sanitized environment with all precautionary measures to be strictly followed at exam centers, including physical distancing protocols, providing hand sanitizers and compulsory wearing of masks.

 4. Open book examination (OBE)

OBE will require students to first download the question paper from the exam portal, write the answers on plain paper, and finally scan and upload them on the portal, all within a stipulated time limit.

Summing it up, internet connectivity conditions will inevitably widen the gap between students with different economic backgrounds and a sudden change in the style of questions (as is required by the “open book” format) without enough time allowed to cope with changed pattern, it will create anxiety in students.

Higher education entrance exams are the highest-stake exams that determine access to higher education premium institutes in India where fairness is the key. Hence, along with health and safety, it is important to ensuring equity and equal opportunity for all students while conducting entrance exams.

Enabling education for the masses through adoption of Ed-tech

The Indian education system is currently suffering from serious lacunae of teacher centered traditional schooling also known as ‘Factory model’ where in children are referred as products and where kids are treated as part of an assembly line, learning essentially the same things at an ‘average’ pace of the class without much personalization. This ‘Factory Model’ exists because it's the most economical or sustainable way to educate a large number of kids together with limited resources.

On the 2018 Legatum Prosperity Index, an annual study which evaluates 149 countries on several factors, India stands at the 104th spot in education. In India, the percentage of Class II students who could not read a single word of a short text or perform a two-digit subtraction is higher than in Uganda or Ghana. These facts indicates that India children at large scale lack in access to quality Education, educational resources and opportunities to learn beyond schooling.

Major Challenges in Education System in India

• Lack of Infrastructure: Shortage of schools and classrooms with basic amenities like electricity, drinking water and toilets

• Unavailability of quality teachers: Teachers are less qualified, lack professionalism and grappled with absent-ism

• Shortage of quality study material: Shortage of study material leads to disinterest among students

• Language issues: With 1500+ languages available, it is difficult to teach students in their respective languages with limited or no regional language content available 

Technology in Education (Ed-Tech) for large scale adoption

There is urgent need to implement technology enabled solutions and services that can redefine how education is imparted to students in lower strata of society in efficient format at all levels of education.

India is at the cusp of experiencing the growth curve in Ed-Tech & online learning the way the US or China had in the recent past. The current COVID-19 crisis has made use of Ed-tech more pertinent than ever.

 I. Going Digital:

 In online education, content delivery consists of text, audio and video to teach and elaborate on classroom subjects with experienced teachers. Thus fills-in knowledge gaps when teachers are absent or less educated with certain materials. These materials are also more streamlined, making topics easier to understand for a multitude of students. Video lessons make classes more consistent in all schools, eliminating the variation of teaching materials around the country and allowing student at large scale to learn in self-paced manner.

II. Specialized and Individual Learning through Massive Open Online Courses

Traditional schooling system is proven to be less effective at aiding students individually to learn core concepts; through the implementation of MOOC’s, schools will be better able to cater to students’ needs and adapt specific programs to better suit individual learning styles and educational requirement.

III. TV channel-based learning

Poor internet access in rural population is major challenge; with only 15% of families have internet facilities in rural areas. Thus making implementing online education difficult, hence makeshift technology uses such as TV channel based learning in regional languages in particular time slots. This can be crucial in providing instant access to learning content without onboarding.

IV. Open Schooling

Ed-tech can help in strengthening open schooling initiatives such as National Institute of Open Schooling with further to help curtailing School drop-out rates in senior secondary and higher education by creating Open Educational Resources (OER) across streams and allowing studnets to choose multiple subject of choice.

V. Resource-centric social network for educators

Rural area teachers have to be made at par in quality with their counterparts in urban areas, this is possible by developing Resource-centric social network for educators where teachers can interact and seamlessly share educational resources across states and country.

While a number of states in India have initiated Ed-Tech enabled programs to improve education levels, we believe Ed-tech start-ups companies would require extensive partnership with authorities to bring more technology into Indian classrooms for addressing current challenges.

Government should work towards providing digital access such as tablets, SD-Cards, Desktop computers and projectors to lower strata of society making Ed-tech educational programs more accessible to the multitudes. Many state-run schools have some access to these resources and Government needs to make consistent efforts towards providing EdTech for students in all regions.