The Cobra Effect of Board Exams

Why we need to recognise and fix the unintended effects

The Idea: Our system of board exams i.e. high stakes standardized testing in India attempts to assess and promote student learning but instead has the unintended consequence of limiting what 21C student learning should be in schools i.e. it has the cobra effect. A coordinated, long term strategy is needed soon to fix this.

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The Cobra Effect

A story from the British rule in India around the 1900’s goes like this:

The British were worried about the number of poisonous cobras in our Indian surroundings. So, with the aim of reducing the Cobra population, they offered a reward for each snake killed. In the beginning this reward worked well, as cobras were killed in large numbers. However, once the cobra numbers dwindled, us entrepreneurial Indians began to breed cobras in an effort to continue to claim the rewards! The result of this was the opposite of what the British had intended… Over time, the Cobra population doubled instead of reducing!

The Cobra Effect of Board Exams

In India, our Board exams i.e. our high stakes, standardised tests, seem to be having the same Cobra effect on Student Learning. It started off with a sensible goal - to ensure students are learning effectively, at scale. For a time, decades ago, it helped set a standard for learning and raising the bar in classrooms. However, as decades have gone by, board exams are not supporting its intended goal of promoting student learning.

Losing sight of our purpose

In both cases:

• The purpose was lost i.e. reducing Cobras, better Student Learning

• The data point used was a poor measure of the actual goal i.e. Hunted Cobras for Cobras in surroundings, Board Exam performance for student learning

Why have board exams resulted in unintended consequences?

In a nutshell, “What gets tested, gets taught”.

Outdated assessment

Board exams resulted in increased efforts towards teaching and studying for the board exams. But, Board exams were set up as a measure for learning in the 1950’s in India. They test for a very narrow application of theoretical knowledge at best and at worst, memory and recall. Further, the mode of assessment for most exams still remains pen and paper, with almost no use of technology, in this digital world.

Outdated learning

This combination of high stakes exams and outdated design has resulted in:

• A narrow focus on teaching and learning for exams.

• Student learning that does not include information and digital literacy, project-based learning, 4C’s (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication) and many more 21 C skills.

The National Education Policy 2020 and National Curriculum Framework 2023 have recognised this

NEP 2020

“The current nature of secondary school exams, including Board exams and entrance exams - and the resulting coaching culture of today - are doing much harm, especially at the secondary school level, replacing valuable time for true learning with excessive exam coaching and preparation. These exams also force students to learn a very narrow band of material in a single stream, ratherthan allowing the flexibility and choice that will be so important in the education system of the future”

NCF 2023

“Current Challenges: The examinations most often focus on the capacity of students to reproduce learnt facts and little else. This issue of misalignment between what these examinations should test and what they do test (i.e., validity of the test) is quite common. Given that most examinations largely test rote memory, a very narrow range of Competencies are assessed. This gives an incomplete (at best) or incorrect (at worst) picture of student learning.”

What can we do?

Now I am a Patient Optimist and I understand that this is a complex challenge to solve.

A few steps that might help us move forward with this:

Awareness:

It is essential that all stakeholders - teachers, students, parents, leaders, government and policy makers understand that this is a serious problem that will only get worse with time. Even as India’s economy gets bigger and better on the global map, it’s education system currently is one of its weaknesses. This problem will only worsen the already wide skills gap between education and the workplace.

Alignment:

All stakeholders must think long term, recognise that change is important and commit to the change. Even when progressive upgrades have been made to the system, we have seen the discomfort of change and short-term thinking result in schools/ teachers/ students responding with unethical practices just to get results. Or parents/ teachers protesting when the school incorporates 21 Century learning because they only want the focus to be on test prep. This change is complex and will be hard to execute even with courage and the support of all stakeholders. But it will be impossible to execute swiftly without this alignment.

Collaboration & Iteration:

All stakeholders should take action together, with the awareness that this is a challenge requiring complex solutions that will be messy in execution. The complexity of the process demands that it be implemented in an iterative manner. We will need to continuously plan, act, reflect and iterate towards our goal.

As a School Leader, I feel very trapped in our current system, but I am optimistic that educators, parents and policy makers will come together to solve this challenge in the next decade!