| Traditional methods of large-scale student assessment (such as PEC) are costly, complex and infrequent. In 2015, the School Education Department and PITB implemented a low-cost, tablet-PC based student assessment app - used by School Monitoring Officers during their monthly visits to each school. The assessment app is linked to an extensive question bank and each question is tagged with the relevant student learning outcomes. Currently, MEAs randomly select students from Grade 3 and carry out on-spot tests for English, Mathematics and Urdu across all public schools in Punjab. Almost 5 million assessment tests have been conducted by MEAs. The data is shared with education administrators via an online dashboard and SMS-alerts. |
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Benefits
- The platform is an enabler for low-cost, frequent student assessments at scale
- Teacher presence and in-class student learning is being positively impacted
- This approach has helped baseline and benchmark learning levels between public schools and low-cost private schools in the Punjab
- Teachers and school administrators have become aware that consistent low scores on SLOs get highlighted in School Reforms Stocktake meetings, so they are taking steps to teach better.
This assessment platform can be extended for any grade level, as and when the School Education Department decides to measure student learning outcomes for other grades as well.