Burning the mid-night lamp for memorising properties of metals or revenue policies of Emperor Akbar may well become a thing of the past if the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) implements  its new pattern of questions for school examinations.

The new pattern of questions, being developed by the Department of Education, Measurement and Evaluation of NCERT, is aimed at improving the quality of teaching-learning process rather than forcing students to mug up facts and figures and reproduce them in examinations.

“At present, most of the questions are knowledge-based, which the students can answer simply by memorisation. For a better assessment, we must have questions testing understanding and higher mental abilities of the students,” an official told Deccan Herald. Changing the typology of the questions, which is a part of the overall paradigm shift in the approach of evaluation of school children, would provide room for different opinions, creativity of thought and expression, he said.

The new type of questions would try to test higher mental abilities like reasoning, creative thinking, application of knowledge, interpretation, drawing inferences etc.

For example, the traditional method of questioning might ask the students to state four considerations to be kept in mind while starting an iron smelting plant.

New system
Once the new system comes into practice, the student would be asked if an industrialist wanted to develop an iron smelting plant, which site should he choose and why.

Similarly, traditional questions of how the shape of a bird’s beak helps in adaptation would be rephrased by asking the students to draw the beak of a common bird seen in their neighbourhood and explain its likely   food habits and where in their neighbourhood is it likely to find its food.

Thus, compared to the traditional examination questions which are text-book based and largely memory-oriented, the new questions would be open-ended and challenging.

The NCERT has already developed model question papers for the main subjects of class X and XII and sent them to the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) for adopting them for the annual examinations in 2008-09.

Besides, the NCERT has also trained a group of paper-setters from a number of state boards like Uttarakhand and MP in framing questions to test the higher mental abilities of students. “This is an ongoing process and this exercise will be undertaken by all school education boards in due course,” the official said.