Still an exam

Eight months after he announced a 100-day plan for his HRD ministry,Kapil Sibal has lost none of that revolutionary fervour. This week he said state boards for higher secondary education had agreed to switch to a uniform core curriculum for mathematics and science from next year. He added that a single national examination for admission to college should be implemented by 2013.

The stated objectives fueling these proposals are laudable: to give students across the country a level playing field for college admission,and to reduce the enormous stress high school students negotiate in the process. Equally,the possibilities lie in the details,and the minister must plead his case by matching proposed reforms with realistic expectations of the outcomes. Therefore,what would be the nature of a core curriculum? Would it be the larger kernel of syllabi to establish a basic minimum level of competence in these subjects? Or would it define the limits to which a students familiarity and understanding of certain subjects would be tested? These questions are easier addressed for a mathematics and science curriculum,than for the arts and social sciences. For mathematics and science an overlap may even be possible. But the direction must be made explicit,for that would define the approach to other subjects literature,history,etc which demand greater flexibility and diversity.

Similarly,the single examination at first glance appears to be a welcome way of mitigating the trauma class XII students face with boards and multiple entrance examinations for various courses and institutions. Yet,given the competitiveness embedded in the system,it would be simplistic to think that this would in and of itself relieve anxiety about admissions or enable perfect rankings across disciplines. There needs to be more clarity on what the framework of a single examination could be. Would it be an aggregate of staggered and possibly elective examinations,like the A and O-levels? Would it be an SAT sort of examination that would test aptitude in a very basic way,and allow colleges multiple criteria for assessment? Or would it just be a board examination by another name? Each option would have implications for Sibals aim to ensure equal opportunity across schools in India.