IAEA 2008 Learning 1: A Contrast In Education Outcome Standards

Quite a few people have been asking me about the International Association for Education Assessments (IAEA 2008) Seminar at Cambridge that I attended this month. So here is a series of blog posts on some of the things I learnt (I am motivated to write all this since I do not want people to -- rather rightly -- suspect that I was holidaying in a quaint English town :-))

This post contrasts the Education Outcome Standards of England versus those in India.

In England, a regulator for education sets assessment standards which define what the outcome of education should be for different levels of schooling and college. The regulator, Ofqual (http://ofqual.gov.uk/) ensures that all exams across different boards that award degrees follow standards while conducting examinations. A very interesting document to read would be the National Curriculum Assessments Regulatory Framework (http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/qca-06-2827_regulatory_framework.pdf) published by ofqual which highlights assessments standards. For instance, Page 12 of this document mentions what a Reading Test for target year group 2 should encompass. This ensures that students get fair exams that accurately reflect the quality of education imparted and imbibed.



Also, the research effort on education in general and assessments in particular to ensure that assessments are fair, accessible and of good quality is very high. The introspection on whether assessments are appropriate is also very high in England. This was noticeable in all presentations made by English representatives at the Seminar. An example of this is seen at http://ofqual.gov.uk/files/Ear_Chart03.pdf where a flow chart for appeal in case a student suspects that results are not correct is presented. While educational institutions and Universities in India also have similar processes for education regulation in general, I have noticed that there are no outcome/assessment standards defined. Further, the level of introspection on whether assessments are fair is lower. And most importantly assessment research in Education seems limited.



This is an area we in India can possibly do more work on.