Dev 360: Leak wake-up call Rejig exams, junk cramming

If it is any consolation, leaks of examination question papers is not uniquely an Indian phenomenon. Students commit suicides because they fear their marks in the Class 12 exam would not be good enough and that they would disappoint their parents. You can’t blame students for thinking that their entire school life boils down to how they fare in this one exam. There have been mounting concerns about student learning outcomes, teacher training, curriculum quality, assessment of learning achievements, and so on, but despite everything, there has not been any real structural reforms of the CBSE examination system, and the way we assess students at the end of their school years. Doing away with rote-learning, developing a spirit of critical enquiry, moving towards a system that focuses on academic process rather than marks in just one exam may seem utopian at this point.