How often have we adults woken up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, but heaving a sigh of relief that the monstrous math exam, for which we appeared unprepared, was a nightmare, and that school was a long time ago? Though dream interpreters may decode this nightmare as anxiety or the soul preparing for a cosmic transformation, the haunting tremors of annual exams still send a shiver down our spines.
Those unrealistic expectations for glamorous grades and the sprinting pace of the pulse made exams a demon created by our education system that still seem to prowl at large. Ten months of schooling every year would boil down to three hours of anxious reproduction of rote learning that would melt from our brains in the next few hours; a grading system that somehow felt necessary but redundant.
How could a set of questions that would not even quantify as the sum total of a subject decide a student’s future? No, right! Turns out that not every education system relies on an annual grading system to pigeonhole its students.
Let’s look at some of the most innovative ways of evaluating a student to help them progress from one level to another.
Finland
Nightmares are a thing of the past if the Finnish system of assessment is taken into consideration. Instead of placing importance on grades, Finland’s education system emphasises on holistic development of students, evaluating their personal growth and skills such as critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving along with subject-specific skills. With a student centric approach, the Finnish education system contributes to the overall well-being of a student.
Estonia
Despite being a small country in Northern Europe, Estonia is widely considered the best in Europe for education. A healthy combination of socio-personal skills and academic learning, Estonian Education System, has highly qualified teachers adept at taking students through science, music and arts. Staying abreast with changing times and technology, Estonia allows its schools to choose their own curriculum within the national framework. And the number of papers a student has to appear for progressing into upper secondary? Only 3: Math, Estonian and a subject of the student’s choice. Also, some teachers take outdoor math classes on a few occasions because, why not? Didn’t Einstein believe that nature could be understood through mathematics? Now that would be a pleasant dream? Isn’t it?
Western Australia
Exam didn’t go well? Don’t you worry because Western Australia strikes a balance between final grades and year-long assessments. Students are evaluated on their cognitive, socio-emotional and creative skills for the whole year which constitutes 50% of their grades. The rest are allotted for an annual examination that relies on the other assessment if a student fares poorly in one of the papers. Exams are not stressful and children have a whole year to create a niche for themselves.
Conclusion
It is about time that we recalibrate the grading systems, right from grass root levels to unearth hidden talents in our children. The fast-paced and ever-evolving world requires a system that can adapt to the current needs of development and not adhere to an aeonian structure. It is time that we plant positive dreams in the minds of our children, and not pass on the trauma of an unfinished math exam, years after they have finished their schooling.
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