Educators should base their assessment of students' learning not on

students' grasp of facts but on the ability to explain the ideas, trends,
and concepts that those facts illustrate.

(30 minutes)
The issue presented is the topic of a major education policy reform push by
several knowledgable experts, eduactors and activists, who rightly argue that the
students, especially at a young malleable age, whould be judged not on their
grasp on bre facts as presented in school textbooks, but on their ability to
critically analyze the fact, question the asumptions behind the fact, and explain
the trends and implicit ideas behind the fact. Only then would students become
truly sensitive and well-rounded.
Firstly, there is a general trend in most schools in many countries of conducting
exams in which suceess is measured by how accurately the student is to able to
reproduce the material presented to them in the school textbook. However, this
approach only helps in making students unidimensional and robotic. Simply
mugging the facts laid out in the curriculum precludes the students from thinking
for themselves. This is not to say that the students are indolent. However, since
the only parameter by which their performance in academia is judged in by their
grades in the examinations, for which rote learning of the facts is the easiest and
the most viable option. Therefore, most students, even those who top the exam
and earn, rightfully or unrightfully, the praise of their teachers, do not feel the
need to critically analyze the trends, ideas andn concepts behind the facts
presented. Educators must, therefore shape the nature of the education system
in such a way that the assessment mechanisms, such as exams, necessitate the
students to apply their minds and brains to the concepts and ideas behind the
facts. Only then would the education system produce truly well-rounded and able
students who would then be able to survive in the competitive business world
and contribute positively to the society.
Secondly, simply assessing the students on facts makes students unidimensional
and in a way, insensitive to the world around them, since the facts laid out in
front of them is simply a pointer and an invitation to a more deeper analysis into
the nature and the working of the world and the society. For example, consider
that in the history textbook, one of the chapters mentions the fact that several
thousand civilians and soldiers died during the Second World War. This dry and
bare fact does not fully capture the true horrors of the war thjat the student
needs to be aware of; if asked to simply reproduce this fact on the exam, then
the student will not take the invitation and delve deep into the subject, critically
analyze the reasons behind the war, analyze the moral implications and the
deleterious effects of the war, and then finally come to a truly informed
understanding of the true horrors of the war. Only such a student can be said to
be well-rounded and sensitive to the world around him/her. It is also turue that
only if a student is compelled to do the above by the asessment mechanisms in
school (exams, vivas etc.) will he/she take the efforts. Therefore, educators
should modify their assessment of the students in this manner.
It is also likely that the students will enjoy school if assessed in this manner
rather that simply asked to reproduce facts, which most see it as an arcane and

a painstaking task. The students enjoyment and involvement in the education

process is exteremely vital; effective education cannot be a one-way traffic.
Therefore, educators must take the above points into consideration and base
their judgement of the students ability, not on their grasp of bare facts, but on
their ability to analyze those facts critically and relate it to the world and the
society around them.