DoE arm may grow into centre of academic reforms

New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday chaired a meeting of the Assessment Unit of the Examination Branch of the Directorate of Education and said the wing may take the shape of a centre of academic reforms for the country.

"The Assessment Unit is envisioned as a Research & Development team of the Education Department of Delhi Government. This unit is expected to drive the pedagogical and assessment reforms in the schools of Delhi government and develop as a centre of academic reforms for the country," said Sisodia.

Sisodia on Thursday met the members of the newly-constituted Assessment Unit.

The meeting was attended by the Director Education, Director SCERT, Additional Director (School and Examination), OSD (Assessment Unit) and the Assessment Unit members.

"For now, this unit will be responsible for creating high-quality assessment tools, analyzing student answer sheets to develop insights into students' understanding and misconceptions and learning gaps, and recommending interventions to improve learning outcomes.

"The unit will engage with assessment agencies and education experts to build high-end technical capacity in tool development, data analysis and reporting," said Sisodia.

He said that "what is tested in examinations has heavy influence of what teachers teach and students learn in the classroom", and hence, "examinations that test students on higher-order skills instead of facts will encourage teaching that enables conceptual learning".

Sisodia asked the officials of the Education Department to review the practice of prescribing monthly completion of syllabus to semester-wise syllabus.

"...the learnings from 'Chunauti 2018' should feed into determining the learning trajectory of students in different grades, so that the wide gap among students in same grades can be bridged as far as possible ... (so that) each child gets an opportunity to excel," he said.