Time to revolutionise education: From question paper to 'evaluation paper' under the new curriculum

Suppose you are just a 13-year-old student, currently in Class VIII and need to formulate a proposal for a "green project." 

You have been given several options, including issues related to your school and its surrounding environment, the agriculture of your locality, or the library, laboratory and canteen of your institution. 

After choosing one problem, you have to formulate your proposal in two steps.

In the first step, you have to describe the problem, justify why it is important and identify a profession that addresses the problem.

In the second step, you have to describe a solution using futuristic technology and identify new professions that would arise from this project. 

Here you also have to evaluate the potential impact of the project on the environment and explain the overall role of the project in benefiting society or humankind.

"We can confidently assert that this type of evaluation is superior to the traditional grading system. Under the new curriculum, all activities will lead to intellectual and personality development."

Sidique Belal, Member, TextBook Writers Panel, NCTB

In the end, you have to create an itinerary of an event where such proposals could be presented.

At first glance, it may seem like you have a lot on your plate for a 13-year-old. But for this, you will be given as many as five hours.

Also, you will not really be alone. You will pair with one of your classmates for consultation, and then you will also get a 30-minute break after the completion of the first step. 

Moreover, this will be an open-book affair, where you may get help from books or even the Internet. 

Now this turns out to be a really fun thing to do. This was exactly what the Class VIII students were instructed for their half-yearly collective evaluation in the subject 'Life and Livelihood' on 3 July. 

This is how the new curriculum is to be evaluated. As the State Minister for Education Begum Shamsunnahar Chapa said earlier in April, "The time is to revolutionise education."  

Students in other classes were also given more or less similar tasks.

For example, Class VI students for their 'Bangla' subject were asked to make plans for a ceremony for their school's founding anniversary. 

For this, they had to plan for both the discussion and cultural events, integrating their Bangla skills like proper spelling, good vocabulary, usage of tense and pronunciation throughout the process. 

Class IX students for the subject 'History and Social Sciences' were asked to formulate a project titled 'My role in family and society,' where they explored their identities, behavioural patterns, familial roles, cultural practices etc in a scientific method. 

Thus, this marked their first day of evaluation under the new curriculum, which saw a shift from memorisation to independent writing. 

"We can confidently assert that this type of evaluation is superior to the traditional grading system because the previous one often overlooks a learner's limitations and capabilities," claimed Sidique Belal, a member of the TextBook Writers Panel, NCTB told TBS earlier in March. 

"Under the new curriculum, all activities will lead to intellectual and personality development," he added.

The government started implementing the new curriculum in Class I, VI and VII in 2023 and in Class II, III, VIII and IX this year. From the year 2025, all school students will study under the new curriculum. And in 2027, the new curriculum will be implemented in Class XII (higher secondary).

Now, if we analyse this new evaluation paper (not 'question paper' anymore), it's clear that the tasks do not simply require recalling answers from memory. Instead, they align with real-life problems and encourage critical thinking to develop innovative ideas as solutions.

This approach certainly provides students with ample opportunity to move beyond their textbooks and express themselves creatively. It encourages the development of research skills by honing their ability to synthesise information from various sources and enhances collaborative communication and teamwork skills. 

Most importantly, it prepares them for the challenges they will face in the fast-paced world after their student lives are over.

As a result, this is really a welcome change in our school curriculum that deserves appreciation. 

That said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There still exist significant challenges that could prevent this new curriculum from achieving its desired outcomes soon.

To begin with, in this new evaluation process, the assessment for students will be divided into two parts: 65% will be based on written exams and 35% will be activity-based. 

At the end of each year, students will be assessed through a test, and their results will be represented by symbols such as a triangle, square or circle instead of marks.

However, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) finalised this decision only on 1 July, just two days before the commencement of the half-yearly evaluation, which left everyone from teachers to students to guardians in a difficult position.

Even though it has been one and a half years since the new curriculum was first introduced on 1 January 2023, confusion about the assessment system has persisted, hindering student progress.

Most teachers are frustrated due to the lack of necessary training before the introduction of the new curriculum. This inadequacy left them unable to properly prepare students. 

Teachers outside the big cities were particularly unsure of how to deliver lectures and form student groups. Guardians were equally in the dark and unable to help their children at home.

But if these issues weren't enough, a more concerning series of events unfolded on the night of 2 July. Even before the evaluation process began on 3 July, evaluation papers started circulating online, and some YouTube channels uploaded videos with complete subject-wise solutions.

This essentially ruined the effectiveness of the new experiment and activity-based curriculum.

The requirement for centrally setting evaluation papers, rather than allowing teachers in each school to create their own, underscores the fact that teachers nationwide are not even ready to develop their questions.

On the other hand, had students seen the evaluation tasks for the first time when they reached their classrooms on the morning of 3 July and started brainstorming solutions only then, it could have been a revolutionary change in the country's education sector.

But in reality, that was not the case. 

Leaked evaluation papers and their solutions meant students had already been aware of which tasks they were going to be faced with, and how to respond to them. So, once again they had the chance to memorise the answers and simply write them down in their answer scripts. 

And even worse, not everyone had to memorise either. Mobile phones and the Internet were allowed in many classrooms, and the solutions to the tasks were readily available on the Internet. Hence, many students got the leverage to simply copy the solutions without using their critical thinking skill.

This is not what the new curriculum was meant to be, and it is unacceptable under any circumstances. 

Just when we thought we had left behind the dark days of question leaks, it has returned, potentially causing even greater harm to student development. Now, under the new curriculum, the use of smartphones during the 'evaluation' will only make the process counterproductive. 

If this continues, then we are probably witnessing the beginning of the end of our future generation. But of course, we will hope that soon the government will intervene.