Amrita Zaheer Ali

Examining the Examination Culture in Pakistan: Are We Letting

Our Students Down?

Assessment serves as a communicative

device between the world of education and

the wider society. (Broadfoot and Black,

2004)

Assessment is a feedback of students’ learning and accountability of teacher’s lessons.

Assessment is not a simple term as it seems; its importance is not in the meaning of the word but

in what it offers. Its whole and sole purpose is to evaluate the learning of the students, sometimes

through out the year or sometimes at the end of the year depending on the system of

examination. It also informs students about their abilities and progress of where they actually

stand. It makes them aware about their potentials in the fields where they want to pursue their

career. The Board of Intermediate Examination System of Pakistan is not efficient enough to test

students’ abilities, so examinations should test their analytical and cognitive skills as is done in

the Aga Khan University Examination Board system.

These two Intermediate Examination boards have their own criteria of evaluating students. These

exams system are sole determinants of students’ future career in pursuing further or higher

education or getting into the job market. Professor Amin Rehmani asserts that

Both systems are poles apart in terms of

syllabi, choices of subjects from any

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discipline, conduct of exams, style and type

of papers, reliability and credibility

(In Naqvi, 2002)

We will see in later research how they are completely apart from each other in the above

mentioned factors.

Board of Intermediate Education was established as separate entity in 1974 through the Sindh

Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education. The purpose of this board is to examine,

organize and develop all the system affiliated with it and is also responsible for maintaining and

controlling the standard of education. (The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi).

Whereas, AKU-EB is federal board of intermediate and secondary education, was established in

response to demand from schools for appropriate school and college examinations. Its main

purpose is to improve the quality of education by making examinations (both in English and

Urdu) of reputable standard more accessible to Pakistani students and also based on the national

curriculum for secondary and higher secondary education. (The Aga Khan University).

Amin rehmani asserts that the public exams papers are hardly representative of the entire

curriculum. There is only 1 textbook prescribed by this board. The questions in the papers are

repeated exactly the same after every three to five years so that these question can simply be

predicted. There are ‘guess papers’ and ‘model papers’ easily available in the market. There are

some guide books with ready made answers based on past five year papers. Most of the teachers

and students of public boards rely on these guides and use its content for teaching and learning.

This leads to lecture method and curriculum based teaching approaches. Shah & Afzaal (2004),

found out that

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There has been increased repetition of

questions and only selected contents are

tested again and again. No body seemed to

take any serious view of this phenomenon

which leads towards selective study.

Poor content and repeated questions of syllabus in exams led to rote memorization, which

suppress students’ cognitive and critical thinking, whereas AKU-EB exams require a much

higher level and quantity of understanding and application than public sector BISE exams.

Khawar Ghumman in the Dawn (National) of 26 Aug 2005 claimed that AKU-EB’s syllabi of

different subjects will mainly focus on evaluating the concepts that will discourage rote

memorization. But the subjective views will be appreciated. In addition to Ghumman, David

Carroll claimed in his report that AKU-EB syllabus fully supports the national curriculum of

Pakistan. But some topics from national curriculum have been improved for students’ better

understanding and requirement of the today’s world. The teachers have their copies of AKU-EB

syllabi of examination but they used more than one reference to support their teaching. They

made lesson plans of each topic and have rich interaction with students and their parents. This

syllabus encourages observation and creative thinking which were ignored in the past.

Furthermore, It is also expected that

Specific Learning Objectives (SLOs)

included in the AKU-EB’s examination

syllabus will encourage teachers and

students to develop critical consciousness

and analytical skills which are components

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of ‘higher order thinking’. (Dawn, Aug 26,

2005).

Few subjects like Pakistan Studies and history has been enhanced from the past to better meet the

students’ standard and to better serve national development.

The present Intermediate Examination Board of Pakistan is mostly focus on testing the objective

knowledge rather than subjective knowledge which give an idea about their critical and

analytical skills. According to Rehmani, the teachers of public board teach for testing, rather

than for learning. Even the examination system support this approaches to teaching that

compensates memorization. “The better the reproduction, the better and higher scores or marks

awarded by the examiners.” (Rehmani, 2003) Those students who reproduce as given by teachers

can get the higher scores and those who use their analytical and cognitive skills are awarded

lower. The variation in the cognitive level of the students’ knowledge and understanding is not

valued over rote memorization. The absence of uniform assessment technique and the lacks of

standardization of allocation of marks on testing cognitive and critical skills led to erratic results.

To support previous claim Rehmani stated that,

There are grave issues in the examination

system from paper setting, invigilation,

paper marking, and tabulation to

dissemination of results. Reliability and

validity of exam papers in terms of coverage

of curriculum, selection of paper setters,

lack of training for the paper setters and

examiners, marking system and preparation

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of results are considered dubious. (Rehmani,

2003, pg 3)

Reiteration and rote learning seems to be the major key to pass the examination. The creative and

original writing has not been respected. Even the paper pattern promotes rote memorization by

repeating same questions after every three to five years. According to Helmick (1974) stated that

the existing examination provide limited entry to pass to students if they want to be stable

socially and economically. Examination gives the certificate to move one step forward or to

higher level or just to qualify in the job market (In T. Christie and M. Afzaal). Students don’t

have their own learning. These types of exams restrict their own creative thinking.

“Institutional assessment efforts should not be concerned about valuing what can be measured,

but instead about measuring what is valued.” (A. W. Astin)

In public board, where curriculum based and teacher-centered learning is appreciated. Pupil’s

tend to do better in subjects which require rote learning but in the subjects which require own

understanding and analytical thinking they fail in that. Some concepts in the test books are above

the level of their understanding. So they have no other option just to rote learn them. Learning,

especially in public schools, is mostly curriculum based and teacher-centered. Children tend to

do better in subjects requiring rote memory but do poorly on basic comprehension and

understanding. Moreover, the concepts in textbooks are often at a much higher level than the

cognitive level of the children for which the books have been written, leaving pupils no choice

but to rote-learn them (Rehmani, 2003).

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However, AKU-EB examinations give student facilities to bring their own ideas, understanding,

daily life examples (applications) and show critical analysis on that information. Amin Rehmani

stated the views of few authors in his paper the Impact of Public Examination on Teaching and

Learning in Pakistan, that,

If the examination stresses understanding

and critical approaches to learning, it is

likely that students would adopt deep

approaches to learning. (Rehmani, pg 2)

The assessment method used by AKU-EB evaluates higher intellectual abilities of

comprehension, logical thinking and problem solving (The Aga Khan University). The AKU-EB

also provide listening and speaking exams in the language subjects like English, Urdu and Sindhi

to improve their listening and speaking skills of students in these languages. There is an e-

marking system in which each candidate’s answers is screened as a check against malpractice.

The integrity and transparency of its examinations are major priorities of AKU-EB. The same

software will also generate feedback on the performance of candidate (The Aga Khan

University). This technology will also eliminate biasness, errors and speed up the process of

verification and compilation of scores so that the results can be announced within six weeks.

The existing public intermediate examination system needs drastic reforms specially in

improving the quality of exam papers that would assess higher order skills and respect answers

that are based on their own understanding and comprehension. If we seriously want to bring

revolutionary change to the intermediate examination system of Pakistan, so we need to

encourage such examination pattern that appreciate and evaluate students’ cognitive and

analytical skills is as done by Aga Khan University Examination Board.

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WORKS CITED

Journals:

Carroll, David. “Evaluation of Aga Khan University Examination Board.” Academy for

educational development (April-May 2008): Web. 7th Oct. 2009.

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACL727.pdf

Rehmani, Amin. “Impact of Public Examination System on Teaching and Learning in Pakistan.”

Aga Khan University Examination Board (2003): Web. 6th Oct. 2009.

www.aku.edu/AKUEB/pdfs/pubexam.pdf

T. Christie and M. Afzaal. “Rote Memorization as a Sufficient Explanation of Secondary School

Examination Achievement in Pakistan: An Empirical Investigation of a Widespread

Assumption.” Aga Khan University Examination Board (2005): Web. 4th Oct. 2009.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/downloaddoc.aspx/?doc_id=2286439

Newspaper Article:

Ghumman, Khawar. “AKU-EB Outline Syllabi for its Exams.” Dawn National Aug 26, 2005,

<http://www.dawn.com/2005/08/26/nat10.htm>.

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Official Websites:

Aga Khan University. “Introduction” Aga Khan University. Web. 7th Oct. 2009.

<http://www.aku.edu/AKUEB/intro.shtml>.

Board of Intermediate Education Karachi. “About Us” Board of Intermediate Education

Karachi. Web. 7th Oct. 2009.

<http://www.biek.edu.pk/aboutus.asp>.

BY:
Amrita Zaheer Ali