‘Learning Outcomes Assessment’ to be conducted by the HRD Ministry in October

The first country-wide assessment based on the recently introduced learning outcomes is all set to be conducted by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry. The learning outcomes are prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). The HRD Ministry will soon release the notification on the learning outcomes.

What is 'Learning Outcomes Assessment?'

Learning outcomes are the expected levels of learning that children should achieve between classes 1 and 8. The assessment is likely to be held in September-October 2022. A senior official said that the question banks will be sent to the states and the results of the assessment will be used to measure the gaps and find ways to minimise them. He added that it is yet to be decided how the assessment will be conducted. Either the states will conduct it or a third party. NCERT will be preparing the question banks and forwarding them to the examining authority.

Another senior official said that the assessment will be benchmarked against the learning outcomes already finalised. This will help the schools identify students who need additional support to obtain the desired learning levels. He added that this assessment will also help teachers identify the teaching-learning process.

The main aim of the outcomes is to move away from rote learning. For example, they assess if a class 4 student is able to read subtitles on TV, titles of books, news headlines, if a class 7 student is able to locate his/her constituency on a parliamentary constituency map and name the local MP, a class 8 student can demonstrate how to file a First Information Report (FIR), and so on.