You have near perfect vision, or 20/20 vision, if you can see the letters of an eye-chart from a 20 feet distance. 20/20 is an exciting cricket game if you can add two ounces of cricket with one ounce of baseball and garnish it with pom-poms. The year 2020, however, has been less than perfect or exciting. Thanks to Covid-19, it may very well be a year that we want to forget. Then again, it will be remembered as the year in which 100 percent of our students passed their Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams.
A record total of 1.37 million students will get their grades calculated based on the secondary level public examinations: JSC and SSC. This is a momentous decision which is far from perfect, yet given the circumstances, this will go into history as one of the "abnormal" compromises that was "normalised" by the pandemic-infested 2020.
The Education Minister and her Deputy cited examples of other countries in support of their decision of not holding HSC examinations this year. Almost all countries of the world have either cancelled, postponed or modified their high-stakes examinations. The HSC is by definition a high-stakes examinations. It certifies students with the credentials to move from one level of education to the next (or workforce). While the decision to cancel the examinations six months after its scheduled start will somewhat unburden the parents and students from their current worries, it will trigger new ones. Before getting into the consequences, let me ponder on the decision making process.
UNESCO published a report in April indicating how 188 countries opted to close their academic institutions, affecting the learning of 91.3 percent of total enrolled students, numbered at a whopping 1.58 billion. Our academic institutions adopted a similar measure to secure the health safety of our students. In course of time, private institutions tried to adopt and adapt by espousing technology and switching to online teaching and learning; the public system faltered. The fear over fair assessment and the accessibility to technology are the main culprits for such a hindrance.
The same fear dictated the terms of holding the national-level public examinations. For a country where infrastructure is still at its infancy, holding on-site exams while maintaining utmost health safety rules was a no-brainer. Spreading the seating arrangement would have meant doubling the number of examination centers, and that too would not have necessarily stopped the parents crowding to the centres or examinees traveling in the public system. Even one casualty in the process would be too many. Ensuring technological accessibility to all candidates for online testing and training all teachers to administer a new form of tests would have required adequate training programmes and orientations, which we do not have.
The other option could have been assigning grades based on school records (predicted grades of test/pre-test results). In the absence of a monitored continuous assessment, relying on the grades predicted or assigned by teachers would have been risky (given our track-record of nepotism and corruption). The government must have got their cue from the A-level/GCSE fiasco in the UK where a faulty algorithm created inequities in results: the prediction process in the UK has favoured the affluent schools, and the universities in turn are struggling to deal with the grade inflations. Calibrating results based on previous public examinations therefore seem to be an acceptable, if not an ideal, choice.
It will, however, put students with an upward curve in a disadvantageous position. There are many late-bloomers who do better after coming to the higher secondary levels or universities. Their school performance is hardly any indicator of their true potential. There are also the students who change disciplines because of their weakness in certain subjects. A science student who has done poorly in Maths in SSC may switch to Commerce or Humanities in her HSC. Although the government has assured that they will come up with compatibility formula for these students with changed disciplines, the giant exam machinery is unlikely to be case-sensitive. The hard work of many who were determined to excel will not be rewarded. Conversely, many students who not deserve to pass will get a free pass to move to the next level. The wholesale pass will further attach social stigma to these students for no fault of their own.
The real challenge, however, will be to accommodate these students at the tertiary level. It will be interesting to see how universities decide to give weightage to the aggregated marks. I am sure top institutions will make their admission tests difficult to ensure quality; whereas, the mushrooming private university sector will be thirsting for the student inflow. Those planning to go abroad will not face any new hindrance as most of the overseas universities have their own selection mechanism that requires sitting for aptitude and language proficiency tests in addition to personal statements.
The delay in the decision of cancelling the examinations begs some serious questions. It seems the government waited for long, thinking (even voicing out publicly) that the academic year in universities will begin in June. Since HSC candidates have already missed the 2020 session, they might as well as wait for the next term when the academic year of the public universities would begin in June. They did not consider the fact that many of these students would join the private system or try to go abroad.
According to a 2016 UGC report, the 34 public universities in Bangladesh provided spaces to 264,084 students. Colleges under the National University and the Open University offered spaces to another 2,300,053 students, with technical institutes adding another 89,723. In the same year, private universities accommodated 337,157 students. A government should have a 20/20 vision and be mindful of all its stakeholders—not just public ones.
The figures suggest another Achilles Heel of our education system. Even if all institutions admit their full quota, five lakh students will not have a seat in the tertiary system. There should be an immediate strategy to address the issue before the publication of the results. If the country wants to pivot on the demographic dividends, it must have a clear vision to transform this youth force into a workforce. There should be an inventory on the role of higher education. At the same time, there should be alternative measures to give voluntary, entrepreneurial and life skills to these students who would not find a slot in the tertiary system.
The students who have waited almost a year (and continue to wait) must be mentally distraught by now. The admission worry will add to their mental condition. Again, a clear policy on the psychological well-being of these students are required. The government must incentivise the educational institutions to come up with the necessary student support services. Dealing with this new batch will require sensitivity and empathy. The large scale stigma of 100 percent pass will do them a serious disservice. Media can play a positive role in this regard.
The session lag in the public universities has demonstrated its inability to adjust to the new normal. The indecision, caused by a mixture of indifference and ineptitude, deterred the public universities from moving to online teaching. It is imperative that the public system ups its game to tackle the situation.
The private universities, on the other hand, will be self-motivated to attract these students with services lacking in the public system. Many of these universities have been suffering from a serious shortage of students as there has not been any new student in the system for the last three terms. If the government further delays publishing the results, many smaller universities will simply perish. Already many universities have gone for lay-offs, halfed their staff salary and curtailed benefits.
The stakes are high. And there is not a single moment to tarry.
Written by: Shamsad Mortuza
Source: The Daily Star
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