The Royal Kasho on Education Reforms decreed by His Majesty The King on the 113th National Day in Punakha Dzong on 17th December 2020 states that “The process of reforming our education system must aim for standards and goals which are of the highest possible order. We cannot compare present progress with our past and celebrate it as a measure of success.”
The concerns on declining quality of education was rife for couple of years among the people, but many, even those within the education system defended that there was no evidence of quality deterioration, and that quality concerns cannot be concluded from sparse issues on graduates. The study to understand this situation had been carried out my Royal Education Council and suggestive directions placed for the Education Ministry to strengthen leadership, teacher professional development and curricular changes. The Education Blue Print is used as a yardstick document to initiate progressive changes in the system, revisiting curriculum, strategising human resource, reframing teacher training mandates, upscaling learning resources.
The recent directive within the school assessment policies is change in assessment criteria for academic areas. Unlike in the past, the pass percentage of all levels is at 40%, with class X and IX pass percent changing from 35% to 40 %. This change ensure that students learning quality is increased and measured 5% more than previous years. The change was not a concern for schools as this increase ensures that student increase their academic performance. I have always questioned the basis of maintaining 35% as passed percent in view of expectation to have better quality graduates in class XII. How can students who were assessed as passed at 35% in class X attain more than 60% in class XII to have their dreams of becoming doctors and engineers fulfilled? This could also mean that a child scoring average mean of 35% has academic quality at 35% of her fullest capacity.
Assessment areas for academic evaluation
His Majesty’s Kasho states that our vision must ‘aim for standards and goals which are of the highest possible order,’ to challenge for quality performance and outcome. The future of our nation will depend on the quality of leadership that our youths today will take. Therefore, it is pertinent to reform education across all areas of services. In accordance with the recent changes in the school academic assessment criteria provided by the Royal Education Council, the change was directed through three areas; increase of passed percentage to 40% across all levels, requirement for attaining passed percentage in both Continuous Assessment and Written Marks and change in Major and minor options in subject necessary to secure passed marks. This however applies only for students above class IV, since students from PP-III are assessed through Continuous Formative Assessment, without requirement for written teast and examinations.
Midterm Assessment on New Assessment
processes
This criteria were applied for during the midterm assessment of students for Dechentsemo Central school students to understand the performance of students. The current assessment indicate that a child must pass in both written and CA, while prior to 2021, children is considered passed if sum of CA and Written marks attain passed mark of 40%. The school analysed the academic performance of midterm examination 2021 as per recent change in assessment and made parallel comparison by analysing results based on assessment standards prior to 2021. The results show that students have mostly passed in CA evaluated as per given criteria, but have been unable to secure passed marks in written marks. These students were considered failed for the midterm examination even if they secured passed on the sum of CA and written marks.
A comparative on Midterm result analysis
When assessed as per the New Normal
assessment criteria, the passed percentage of Dechentsemo CS for midterm
examination is at 40.4% (144 students) and percentage of failed students at
59.6% (205). This is a staggering statistics for school, students and parents.
However, when compared to parallel results as per pre-existing assessment policy
prior to 202, the passed percentage is at 87.7% (307 students), and failed
percentage at 12.3% (42 students) for the midterm examination 2021.
In the analysis of results of students from class VII to X in a section-wise comparison, the passed percentages demonstrated in the graph indicate under-performance. The total number of failed students is 144 of the 349 students who appeared midterm examination. This is a landslide in comparison to regular pass percentage school attained until 2021.
Reflective reasons of performance
The underperformance at more than 40 % failed in midterm this
year, unlike the previous years with average of more than 80 % passed can be
due to following assumptions:
1. The change of
assessment criteria requiring passed in both CA and written exam. The
students were unable to attain passed marks in written exam as per criteria
although passed on the average.
2. Students were deprived
from face to face learning due to pandemic situation in 2020, and online
learning had not been effective. The results show that classes VII-IX have
performed poorly comparing to class X and XI student. Class X and XI had
opportunity to learn face-to face in class IX and X in 2020.
3. Students have passed their examination due to dependency on continuous marks although
they underperformed in written exam in previous years. The current results
indicate that children are unable to prove adequate competence in learning when
evaluated only on written exam. This is also a
result of their ineptitude at writing skills, lack of answering proper
answering skills and weakness in language proficiency.
4. The lack of
reading habit among students may also be attributed to their inability to
express and explain concept and reasons correctly and meaningfully. While
students tend to have understood classroom teaching lesson well, they fail to
translate learned knowledge efficiently on paper.
The indication of current
performance
It is evident that
Bhutanese education system must compete with performing education systems of
the world. Bhutan is no more a land-locked country, and our survival,
sovereignty and socio-economic success depends on interconnections, human
resource sharing and performance on the global stage. Our qualification as a
graduate who are ‘nationally rooted and globally competent citizen’ begins from
a classroom, and how classrooms perform depends on the strategic transformation
of the systemic machinery.
While the current changes initiated as part of the
policy paradigm shift brought to light the concerns of quality to light, it shattered
teachers and parents’ hope from students this time. This is a shadow prognosis of
what state of result schools will have to declare, and it is even more sinister
when class X and XII board examination outcomes based on new assessment standards
are considered. This does not mean that change is faulty and unnecessary, but
that it is a sign that calls for reform from all angles of policy matters, a
sign that our children must improve in the learning scale, and quality.
The performance also brings to light the critical need for growth and purpose in school leadership and teacher performance. The call for urgency is spoken in the Royal Kasho, that, “In preparing our youth for the future, we must take advantage of available technologies, adapt global best practices, and engineer a teaching-learning environment suited to our needs. Technology is the argument of our time and a major indicator of social progress.”
The need for reform
Further, as an educator, we must draw conclusions of
the importance of paradigm shift to the welfare of nation’s future that must be
built on foundations of wise leadership of the youth. In the Royal kasho, His
Majesty The King highlights provide this direction to the education fraternity
that “We must revisit our curriculum, pedagogy,
learning process, and assessments to either transform or rewrite them in view
of the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. Otherwise,
continued focus on textbooks and content without integrating technology and
social learning risks perpetuating passive modes of learning.” This means that the policies, plans
and strategies must align coherently to the Royal Kasho, our beacon of
direction to the future of a GNH nation.
The need for
teachers to grow, adapt and equip to become teachers capable of ensuring better
performance has been raised in the wisdom of His majesty the King, heard during
the Convocation at Royal University of Bhutan, Simtokha on 7th
January 2013. His Majesty said, “…it is not possible to share what you don’t possess so as teachers you
must yourself be open to new ideas and to learning throughout your lives.” Towards this concern, Ministry of Education
began to work on standardizing teacher monitoring system which today has been
instituted within the Bhutan Professional Standard for Teachers mechanism. One
of the exemplary Royal initiatives currently in process is the School
Leadership Development Programme at Tsirang for all school principals. Because
the task of teaching is a mammoth endeavour that impact state of prosperity, wellbeing
and happiness of the country, the ruling government of the day has recognized at
incentivizing teacher’s allowances.
Conclusion
If the key stake holders in schools and the
schooling systems at all levels are prioritized as focus of reform, and all
reforms paced with valid study and innovative ideas for long term impact, quality
performance and outcomes is only a matter of time. We are often directed by His
Majesty The King’s wisdom to the critical concerns of our lifeline. I sometimes
feel ashamed that we are unable to serve beyond the bounderies of our own
limits until a visionary direction decreed. However, we are very fortunate to
have our beloved King, a Bodhisattva, without whom our lifeline would soon
become chaos. The Royal Kasho is a prophecy, and the answers
to our dilemma are etched deep within the golden words.
An interesting piece laden with truth which is also enriched facts.
ReplyDelete