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When examinations hurt children
Why is most of Asia looking away from Myanmar?
Newspaper headlines and photos on January 1 displayed jubilant children with new textbooks distributed to schools around the country as a new year’s gift. The previous day’s media display was also upbeat featuring fortunate students who secured the coveted GPA-5 score in the Primary Completion Examination (PECE) and Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) Examination.
A New Year’s Day radio broadcast of BBC Bangla reported that at least three children committed suicide because they did not achieve the expected results in exams. A 14-year old girl in Barishal hanged herself when she learned that she did not secure GPA-5 in her JSC exam. Another adolescent girl from Goshaighat in Shariatpur took her own life because she failed in the JSC exam. A boy at Kamlakanda in Netrokona did the same when he failed in the annual class six exam.
These are devastating tragedies for the children, their loved ones, and for society. Less dramatic but damaging on a large scale is the fact that the vast majority of children taking the PECE and JSC exams, who do not score GPA-5 (87 percent and 97 percent respectively) are actually branded as failures or semi-failures and less than competent.
It should not be hard to guess the effect on self-esteem and self-confidence of the children for being placed under high competitive pressure and labelled as incompetent.
BBC Bangla quoted clinical psychologist Ishrat Sharmeen: “Adolescent boys and girls are highly emotional and sensitive and can resort to extreme steps if placed under high social and emotional pressure.” Sharmeen went on, “They may also indulge in copy-cat action when they hear of what other children did.”
Muhibul Hasan Chowdhury, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education observed, “Most countries conduct assessment of student learning, but the grading of students has made it highly competitive.” He said, “We want to bring about change in assessment so that real competencies for life rather than rote learning can be measured.”
Asked about the effects of the PECE examination, Zakir Hossain, the Minister of State for Primary and Mass Education said, “There is no thought at present of cancelling any exam, but we are considering reforms in it.”
How have the primary school and lower secondary exams turned into a source of anxiety and stress for children, parents and arguably school authorities and teachers? And why are the decision makers in the education sector so hesitant to retrace their steps?
The question has been raised persistently by education researchers, child development experts, and parents ever since the nationwide public examination at the end of class 5 was introduced in 2010. Since then, highly competitive, high-stake, national, centrally administered public examinations at the end of grades 5 and 8 were added to the already existing SSC and HSC exams at the end of grade 10 and 12.
The counter-productive and perverse consequences of too many public exams have been well documented. A surge of private coaching centres, commercial guidebooks, rote memorisation, desperation for guessing questions, cheating in exams, question leaks, incentive for authorities to show high pass rates and so on have been identified. (Education Watch Report 2014, Whither Grade 5 Examination, CAMPE.) And now arises the tragedy of young lives being lost.
As I have written earlier, “It is not that all exams and student assessment should be ditched. The value of traditional school-based annual exams needs to be restored. Public assessment at key stages should be for assessing basic competencies in language, math and science rather than using these as a substitute for the class-room based evaluation and annual school-based exams. Schools, teachers, parents and the education authorities need to prioritise teaching and learning, rather than preparing for and taking public exams” ( The Daily Star, “High stake exams for children,” December 2, 2019.)
The education authorities need to address the dire consequences of the public exams for adolescent children urgently and bring about necessary changes without further delay.
Decision needs to be taken to replace PECE and JSC this year (2020) by a simple Foundational Competency Assessment test at the end of classes 5 and 8. These would comprise tests for Bangla and Mathematics competencies for class 5 students and Bangla, Mathematics, English and Science for class 8 students. The test content would be based on essential curricular competencies at these stages assessed respectively with two 1.5-hour tests for class 5 and 4, and two-hour tests for class 8. The key feature of these would be test items reflecting basic skills and competencies and not the specific contents of the various textbooks for different subjects.
Students would receive competency scores without GPA categories and no one would be declared a failure. The results would be used to assess performance of schools and the system as well as to identify the need for further remedial support for students, teachers and schools. An adaptation of the National Student Assessment currently conducted on a nationwide sampling every two years can be the model for primary and junior secondary competency assessment design and marking.
School-based annual half-yearly and annual exams would continue and be based on subjects and text book content for grade four onward (with no formal exam up to class 3). A student’s performance would be judged by a combination of school score and the competency test score with equal weight to each. The combined score may be used for admission to the lower secondary and higher secondary levels.
The measures proposed need to be considered urgently because the consequences of not doing so are grave for children and the education system. With dedicated effort, due attention to the technical aspects of student assessment, dialogue with stakeholders including teachers and parents, and decisive policy steps, the change is implementable within the year.
A basic premise of the move is to eliminate the high-stake character of the current arrangements. This means that no one needs to be concerned about being affected adversely by the reform. This message has to be conveyed clearly to all. And implementation of the competency-based assessment has to be carried out competently.
Dr Manzoor Ahmed is professor emeritus at Brac
University.
Asked about the effects of the PECE examination, Zakir Hossain, the Minister of State for Primary and Mass Education said, “There is no thought at present of cancelling any exam, but we are considering reforms in it.”
PHOTO: STAR
Kamal Ahmed
The latest resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly condemning rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups in Myanmar was the third such resolution on the subject. It was approved by 134 votes in favour and nine against while 28 nations abstained. A vote so close to the hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a petition seeking interim measures to prevent further killings and abuses with genocidal intent demands closer scrutiny to understand global community’s attitude towards the Rohingya crisis.
China and Russia’s opposition to any international condemnation of Myanmar was not unexpected as both of them in the past had supported so-called security operations against alleged insurgency. Had these two veto-wielding nations allowed the UN Security Council to find a way forward to resolve the crisis or at the least refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims of those atrocities carried out by Myanmar security forces would have gotten some hope for justice. Apparently, there’s too little Bangladesh can do to win them over.
The other seven nations who voted against the resolution were Belarus, Cambodia, Peoples Democratic Republic of Lao, Philippines, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. Records show that these nations too have consistently sided with Myanmar. All these countries for decades have been criticised for their human rights records. Among them, Cambodia has bitter experience of dealing with genocide. It had cooperated fully with international jurists and experts to hold some of the perpetrators to justice. But, the current authoritarian regime’s appalling human rights records in the domestic front and reliance on China for military and economic aid explain its inability to support international actions against Myanmar.
Nations which abstained in the vote were even more surprising—India, Japan, Bhutan, Burundi, Cameron, CAR, DPRK, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Palau, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Tanzania, Venezuela and Zambia. Among those abstentions, names of Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka along with India—all members of the South Asian club, Saarc—raise serious questions about our relations with our closest neighbours.
Another notable factor is the high number of Asian nations that either opposed the resolution or abstained from voting. Can these abstentions in a vote condemning gross violations of international law and obligations be called anything other than abetting such heinous crimes? If anyone makes a map of genocide abettors, it will certainly put Asia to shame.
The resolution approved by the General Assembly condemned human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. It called for an immediate cessation of fighting and hostilities. It also expressed alarm at an independent international fact-finding mission’s finding “of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities” by the security forces, which the mission said “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law.” These gravest crimes according to the UN fact-finding mission were committed with a “genocidal intent” and the immediate past UN Human Rights Commissioner described it as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
During the ICJ hearing, one of the top Bangladeshi diplomats told me that his team’s tireless efforts have paid off and the world is now taking the issue of the Rohingya’s sufferings seriously. It is true that Bangladesh has made valuable contribution in bringing in Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Canada and Netherlands behind the legal recourse taken by The Gambia. But, success in one front does not compensate losing support among the neighbours in South and Southeast Asia. Sri Lanka’s inertia against supporting international actions against genocide can be explained with its troubled past in dealing with Tamil insurgency for which it has been facing tremendous international pressure. But so-called neutrality of countries like Nepal, Bhutan and many others in Asia must be a reason for concern.
In order to mount a more effective campaign against Myanmar, Bangladesh needs more help from within the region. But it seems that accepting mediatory role by China might have wider consequences as too many of our Asian neighbours will prefer to allow more time to the regional heavyweight to play its role. There’s no denying that China considers Myanmar of much greater strategic value than Bangladesh. Its mediatory role, therefore, may not be of much help for creating a conducive environment for Rohingya repatriation. And early signs suggest that the Chinese mediation is not sufficient to convince Rohingya refugees to trust Myanmar authority’s promise of safe return without guaranteeing their citizenship.
Certainly, repatriation of more than one million refugees should be our top priority. But it is increasingly becoming clear that unless the international community takes a firm stand against the regime that committed such heinous crimes against its own people and ensures that justice is served, no meaningful negotiation for repatriation of the persecuted Rohingyas is possible.
Kamal Ahmed is a freelance journalist based in London.
China and Russia’s opposition to any international condemnation of Myanmar was not unexpected as both of them in the past had supported so-called security operations against alleged insurgency.
PHOTO: STAR
CROSSWORD BY THOMAS JOSEPH
ON THIS DAY
IN HISTORY
ACROSS
1 Packing box
6 God with a hammer
10 Dance record
11 Puts on the payroll
13 Hollywood deal maker
14 Rewrite for the screen
15 Mover’s truck
16 Uncooked
18 Black goo
19 Lionel Richie song
22 Print measures
23 God of war
24 Garlic unit
27 Ocean chasm
28 Annoy
29 Opposite of post-
30 Programmer’s goof
35 Dripping
36 Compete
37 Gorilla or gibbon
38 Hirsch of “Into the Wild”
40 Said with a twang
42 Matt of movies
43 Wide awake
44 Waiting room
call
45 Endures
DOWN
1 Long for
2 One of Lear’s daughters
3 Add a change to
4 Malleable metal
5 Radical
6 Liquefies
7 Concealed
8 Speaker’s skill
9 Does some roadwork
12 Emphasis
17 Wagon puller
20 Flat
21 Record company
24 Competed in a regatta
25 Center, for one
26 From bygone days
27 Weapons store
29 Letter before omega
31 News item
32 Desert spots
33 Dizzying designs
34 Trappers’ wares
39 Smoked salmon
41 As done by
JANUARY 5, 1933
Golden Gate Bridge
construction begun
In San Francisco on this day in 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge that once boasted the longest main span in the world and that has been celebrated for the magnificence of its setting.
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