Development of ICT Examination System

Abstract:

Today, conducting examinations for schools or colleges is a serious concern of the government agencies. The mal-practices or the delay in declaration of results are affecting the careers of the students and in turn break the image of delivering bodies and hence government. Government of Maharashtra had constituted one committee on examination reforms to carry out the in-depth study for use of ICT in examination system.

The researcher is registered doctoral student, hence presented in the review paper, the examination reforms is the need of every time in the society since its establishment.

Keywords: ICT, Examination reform, Education

Introduction:

Examinations play an important role in imparting education and knowledge to students. Examination is an instrument to evaluate the knowledge, understanding and learning of students. For Teachers, Examinations provides feedback to evolve their way of teaching.

In Maharashtra, serious concerns have been expressed on various issues regarding security of university examination papers and image by the media about the capabilities of Universities to hold & organize examinations in a fair manner. In this regard, Hon’ble Chief Secretary opined that immediate action needs to be taken to set up a reliable system so that aforementioned incidences do not occur and Universities can hold the examinations smoothly.

A Review:

In 2011, Mohini Bhardwaj, Amar Jeet Singh placed the need of present time in India in following manner, “ICT has reached at every door step, but its potential has not been fully utilised. ICT is a very helpful tool for providing good governance by bringing a sea-change in the working of organisations and institutions.”

In two years of span the speedy development of ICT implementation in examination is quoted by Dr. Anurag Sankhiyan, that, “Trend of seeking online applications for regular, entrance /competitive examinations and conducting on-line examinations have made the system very simple and cost effective for the examining bodies. But, on the other hand, this change is also bringing lot of challenges to the rural youth of the country who are not that much techsavvy. The present paper, focus on the possibilities and challenges of integrating ICT in examination system.”

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Ron Oliver in his research paper titled “The role of ICT in higher education for the 21st century: ICT as a change agent for education” stated that, the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the role of ICT in education is becoming more and more important and this importance will continue to grow and develop in the 21st century. The paper argues the role of ICT in transforming teaching and learning and seeks to explore how this will impact on the way programs will be offered and delivered in the universities and colleges of the future.

Aatish Palekar in his web article, The Reform of Examination System – Essay, quoted that, in any education system, they must occupy an important place. Yet the way and the form in which they are held need reform. There are so many serious defects in the present system of examination that their purpose is completely defeated. They fail in measuring the progress of students. Many ways of reforming the examination system have been suggested. One is the setting of objective-type questions, instead of the present system in which the questions require long, essay-type answers.

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Mohini Bhardwaj and Amarjeet singh focused that the need of ICT is at prime stage considering the gross enrollment ratio in India, as per the University Grants Commission (2008) report titled “Higher Education in India-Issues related to expansion, inclusiveness, quality and finance”, the number of universities in India has increased from 20 in 1950 to about 431 in 2008, colleges from 500 in 1950 to 20,677 in 2008 and enrolment of students has increased from mere 100,000 in 1950 to 11,612,000 in 2008. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) i.e. which is a ratio of persons enrolled in higher education institutions to total population of the persons in age group of 18 to 23, rose from 0.7% in 1950 to about 11% in 2007. Still the fact remains that the GER in India is quite low compared to that of the developed countries and world average having GERs 54.6 % and 23.2% respectively. Indian government aims to bring GER to 15 % by 2012.

The researcher made the current review about GER, and find that the current GER is 19% and the government of India aims to achieve the GER up to 30% by 2020. (The Diplomat, Challenges and Solutions in Indian Higher Education ByShreyasi Singh, October 02, 2013)

The author Anurag Sankhiyan is trying to trouble shoot the challenges in examination system with ICT, hence quote that, “India is not a rich country where we can change the whole picture in one day. Being a developing nation, the country is facing lot of problems in every sphere. ICT based examination system is quite costly in the initial stage and in case country manage to invest for changing the manual system to ICT we will be facing the challenges on the part of learner who have to adopt the same. Maximum universities, educational boards and selection bodies are inviting the examination applications online. Students who are rural and not have the access to the new technology have to visit cities for filling the application forms. In that case they depend on the people who are managing the cybercafés. Maximum time it has been observed that their forms get rejected due to filling wrong information by such people. Providing proper orientation to the students regarding using the technology is one of the main challenges.”

The author rightly focus the challenge of poverty in the nation and the challenge of implementing ICT at lowest possible rate along with the lower ICT literacy among the poor citizens.

Anurag Sankhiyan, had also pointed out the significant tangible benefits of using ICT in examination system over the manual system. They quoted that, with ICT integration of technology, process, resources; also streamline procedures in examination system were identified. The author stretch the ICT usage up to quality of service and effective monitoring in the process along with statistical reports at the finger tips.

But Mohini Bhardwaj and Amarjeet singh, these authors placed the challenges of main feature of ICT i.e. integration of ICT in examination system in following way-

• Lot of investment is needed on the part of universities and school examination boards as technology is quite costly.
• Lack of ICT trained people is another challenge, for which proper training programmes in a regular manner are to be organised.
• Less initiative taken by the state universities to integrate ICT in the examination system due to lack of funds.
• Maximum student population of the country is living in the rural areas and not has access to the new technologies.
• Changing the mindset of the people presently using manual system and making them trained.
• Orienting students to adopt new technology before shifting to the ICT based examination system.

Conclusion:

Hence it is clear from above review that in spite of achieving higher GER and ICT promotion at higher stage, the monetary issues are of prime importance. The lack of initiation by universities, rural population and capacity building of the stake holders are challenges in 2013-14, where researcher want to carry out the study to know the implementers thoughts, stake holders e-readyness, how to implement complete ICT solution in NMU region which also covers tribal along with rural region.

References:

1. Dr. Anurag Sankhian, (2013) Redesigning Indian Examination System through Technology, GIAN JYOTI E-JOURNAL, Volume 3, Issue 2 ISSN 2250-348X, 57-67 pp
2. Mohini Bhardwaj, Amar Jeet Singh, (2011) Automated Integrated University Examination System, Himachal Pradesh University Journal, 1-10 pp
3. Aatish Palekar, The Reform of Examination System – Essay ARTICLES http://www.publishyourarticles.net/eng/articles/the-reform-of-examination-system-essay.html accessed on 6.6.2013 at 9.30 am
4. Government of Maharashtra, (2012) Reforms in Examinations System in Universities of Maharashtra through use of Technology, Committee Report.
5. Ron Oliver (2002), The role of ICT in higher education for the 21st century: ICT as a change agent for education, HE 21 conference proceedings