The Karnataka State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) has tweaked the assessment pattern for this academic year. The change in assessment will be applicable to all the first semester students as per the National Education Policy (NEP) which will be implemented for the first time this year.
The decision was taken on Monday after a meeting with all the Vice Chancellors of various universities. Under the new assessment pattern, students in the theory component will be graded 40% based on their internal assessment, while the remaining 60% will be for the term end examination. In the practical section, 50% weightage will be given for term-end exams and the remaining for internal assessment.
B. Thimme Gowda, Vice-Chairman of the council, said the decision was taken as the NEP encourages formative assessment. “The policy says that we should move away from testing the memory of the student and instead test if students have understood the subject,” he said.
He added it would be applicable to all colleges, including autonomous one.
Hitherto, under the theory component - 70% was for the term end exam, while the remaining was for the internal assessment. The weightage for the practical component varied from subject to subject.
SThe decision has come as a shock to many lecturers and college managements who have already framed the syllabus and the evaluation methods. “It is unfortunate that the council has taken a decision so late. We will now have to tweak all the assessments we have planned,” said a principal of a city-based degree college.
However, the Vice Chancellors of a university said that they agreed to make the change in the interest of students. “We want students to prepare for the term-end exam. The new assessment pattern would ensure that the students’ learning is monitored throughout the academic year,” he said.
P. Pradeep, Commissioner, Department of Collegiate Education, also said that the shift was intended to give more emphasis to formative assessment in line with the NEP.
