Assignment No.2

Q.1 what are the issues in teacher education programs implementation?

Technology ushers in fundamental structural changes that can be integral to achieving significant improvements in productivity. Used to support both teaching and learning, technology infuses classrooms with digital learning tools, such as computers and hand held devices; expands course offerings, experiences, and learning materials; supports learning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; builds 21^st century skills; increases student engagement and motivation; and accelerates learning. Technology also has the power to transform teaching by ushering in a new model of connected teaching. This model links teachers to their students and to professional content, resources, and systems to help them improve their own instruction and personalize learning.

Online learning opportunities and the use of open educational resources and other technologies can increase educational productivity by accelerating the rate of learning; reducing costs associated with instructional materials or program delivery; and better utilizing teacher time.

Virtual or online learning: 48 states and the District of Columbia currently support online learning opportunities that range from supplementing classroom instruction on an occasional basis to enrolling students in full-time programs. These opportunities include dual enrollment, credit recovery, and summer school programs, and can make courses such as Advanced Placement and honors, or remediation classes available to students. Both core subjects and electives can be taken online, many supported by online learning materials. While some online schools or programs are homegrown, many others contract with private providers or other states to provide online learning opportunities.

Full-time online schools: The following online or virtual schools enroll students on a full-time basis. Students enrolled in these schools are not attending a bricks and mortar school; instead they receive all of their instruction and earn all of their credits through the online school.

State operated 

• The Florida Virtual School – An online school that provides full-time learning opportunities to students in grades K-12. Districts can also work with Florida Virtual School to provide blended learning opportunities to students by enabling them to access online courses from school sites. Additional link here.
• Utah Electronic High School – An 18-year-old online high school providing a range of courses to students year round. The school can award diplomas to students who are home-schooled, have dropped out, or are ineligible to graduate from a traditional high school for specific reasons.
• North Carolina Virtual Public School – An online high school offering 120 courses to students both during and after the school day. The courses offered include Advanced Placement and honors courses, world languages, electives, credit recovery, and online college courses. The school also provides test preparation and career planning services to students.

District operated

• Karval Online Education – A public K-12 online school for Colorado residents that provides a free computer for the family to use while the student is enrolled and provides reimbursement opportunities to offset Internet and other educational expenses. Dual credit courses are available to juniors and seniors.
• Campbell County Virtual School – This school serves Wyoming students in grades K-6. Families of enrolled students are loaned a computer and receive subsidized Internet access, as well as materials including CDs, videos, instructional materials, and hands-on tools and resources to complement the interactive online elements of the program.
• Salem-Keizer Online – This online Oregon high school is an accredited program of Roberts High School in the Salem-Keizer Public School District in Oregon. The school provides 24/7 learning opportunities to students living within the boundaries of the school district and who are not enrolled in their neighborhood public school. Tuition is only required for students enrolled in summer school courses.

Charter operated

• Guided Online Academic Learning Academy – An online public charter high school in Colorado for students ages 14-21. The Academy offers more than 200 courses to students as well as a variety of support services, activities to support student-to-student interactions, and drop-in centers to facilitate enrollment, counseling, assessments, and other services.

Blended learning: Blended learning opportunities incorporate both face-to-face and online learning opportunities. The degree to which online learning takes place, and the way it is integrated into the curriculum, can vary across schools. The strategy of blending online learning with school-based instruction is often utilized to accommodate students’ diverse learning styles and to enable them to work before or after school in ways that are not possible with full-time conventional classroom instruction. Online learning has the potential to improve educational productivity by accelerating the rate of learning, taking advantage of learning time outside of school hours, reducing the cost of instructional materials, and better utilizing teacher time. These strategies can be particularly useful in rural areas where blended or online learning can help teachers and students in remote areas overcome distance.

State operated

• Michigan Virtual School – Michigan’s students are able to take online classes and access online learning tools from their middle and high schools via this virtual school. Michigan Virtual also provides full-time learning opportunities to middle and high school students. Districts in the state work with the virtual school to grant course credit and diplomas to students.

District operated

• Walled Lake Consolidated School District – This Michigan district’s online summer school credit recovery program was expanded to include online learning opportunities during the school year. Students can now enroll in up to two online courses each semester while continuing to attend school for at least four hours a day. Eleventh and twelfth graders may also choose to enroll concurrently in postsecondary courses via a partnership with a local community college. The credit recovery program reduced per-student costs by 57 percent and the district estimates that by offering two online courses during the school year it has been able to save $517 per student on instructional costs.
• Riverside Virtual School – This school makes interactive courses available to students in Southern California and to other students in rural schools in the state. Students in grades 6-12, including those who are homeschooled, may enroll full-time.

School operated

• San Francisco Flex Academy – This high school is a five-days-a-week hybrid school that provides an online curriculum that personalizes learning and enables students to move through courses at their own pace. These online courses are taken at the school site and are supported by credentialed teachers.
• Rocketship – This elementary charter school network in California is a hybrid school model. Each day, students attend the Learning Lab where they use computers to support their individual learning needs. These Labs do not require certified teachers, enabling Rocketship to reinvest the savings in training, Response to Intervention, higher teacher salaries, facilities, and academic deans. While students are in the Lab, teachers are engaging in planning.
• Carpe Diem Collegiate High School – Carpe Diem is a hybrid school in Arizona that offers computer-assisted instruction and onsite teacher facilitators. This model enables students to progress as they demonstrate mastery.
• iPrep Academy – This Miami-Dade County Public School offers a teacher-facilitated virtual curriculum to 11^th graders. Its motto is “learn anytime, anywhere at” and at the students’ own pace. The curriculum includes Advanced Placement and honors courses, distance learning opportunities that enable students to engage with their peers from around the world, and applies real word experiences to learning.

Open educational resources: Open educational resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain and are freely available to anyone over the Web. They are an important element of an infrastructure for learning and range from podcasts to digital libraries to textbooks and games. It is critical to ensure that open educational resources meet standards of quality, integrity, and accuracy—as with any other educational resource—and that they are accessible to students with disabilities. 

• Open High School of Utah – This school uses open educational resources to create an open source curriculum. To create this curriculum, teachers gather and sort through open source materials, align them with state standards, and modify the materials to meet student needs.  
• CK-12 – CK-12 FlexBooks are customizable, standards-aligned, digital textbooks for grades K-12. They are intended to provide high-quality educational content that will serve both as core text and provide an adaptive environment for learning. 
• Leadership Public Schools (LPS) – In each of the four LPS schools, teachers work together to utilize open-source materials to meet the specific learning needs of their students. Through a partnership with CK-12, LPS has developed College Access Readers, a series of online books with literacy supports embedded in them to meet the individual needs of students, from advanced to under-performing students. 
• Khan Academy – The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization providing digital learning resources, including an extensive video library, practice exercises, and assessments. These resources focus on K-12 math and science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and include resources on the humanities, finance, and history.
• Mooresville Graded School District – This North Carolina district launched a Digital Conversion Initiative to promote the use of technology to improve teaching and learning. In addition to the use of laptop computers and other technologies as instructional tools, the Initiative led to a shift to digital textbooks which are aligned to the state’s standards.
• Vail Unified School District – This Arizona district has replaced textbooks with a digital learning environment that enables every school in the district to take advantage of an online tool to create digital textbooks and support effective teaching.

Use digital resources well: Schools can use digital resources in a variety of ways to support teaching and learning. Electronic grade books, digital portfolios, learning games, and real-time feedback on teacher and student performance, are a few ways that technology can be utilized to power learning.

• High Tech High – High Tech High (HTH) is a network of eleven California charter schools offering project-based learning opportunities to students in grades K-12. HTH links technical and academic studies and focuses on personalization and the connection of learning to the real word. To support student learning and share the results of project-based learning, HTH makes a wealth of resources available online, including teacher and student portfolios, videos, lessons, and other resources.
• New Technology High School – At this California school, student work is assessed across classes and grades, and feedback is made available to students via online grade books. These grade books are continually updated so that students can see how they are doing not only in each course, but also on each of their learning outcomes, averaged across all their courses. Electronic learning portfolios contain examples of students’ work and associated evaluations across all classes and grades. New Tech High is part of the national New Tech Network.
• Quest to Learn – This school, located in New York, utilizes games and other forms of digital media to provide students with a curriculum that is design-led and inquiry-based. The goal of this model is to use education technologies to support students in becoming active problem solvers and critical thinkers, and to provide students with constant feedback on their achievement.

Q.2 how will you define vocational training? Why is it important?

The objective of Tech is to create a skilled workforce aligned with current industry requirements. The program includes short vocational skills courses and soft skills training. This boosts the employability of our graduates as it equips them with practical trades and life-enhancing skills such as computer training, personal grooming and business etiquettes. All courses are accredited by City & Guilds UK and Sindh Board of Technical Education, and certification is provided to successful students by these leading institutions. This has resulted in a high job placement rate of over 67% for our graduates.

Tech trains students in 13 different trades making them market-ready in 6 months. The Tech campus is spread over a vast area of 6 acres in Karachi’s Korangi Industrial Area, and has modern facilities comprising of 23 classrooms, 26 workshops, 14 fully equipped computer labs, an extensive library, sports grounds and a student breakout area.

Tech’s teaching methodology is based on:

Curriculum Training: The curricula includes a balanced mix of theory (30%) and Simulation-Based Learning (70%). Industrial visits are conducted on a regular basis to provide students with as much real-time industrial experience as possible.

Soft skills Training: Soft skills classes teach students how to communicate and how to function effectively in society. Students are given basic training related to reading and writing in English which helps them integrate easily in any work environment, local or international. They are also given training in basic etiquettes, personal grooming, interpersonal communications and team sports.

Vocational learning opportunities play a critical role in skill development and employability. The importance of vocational development can largely be summed up as the difference between theoretical knowledge vs. practical skills. In non-vocational studies, students often spend hours of their time exploring a variety of different subjects. Their class time tends to be only a few hours per week, as they will spend many hours in the library and on computers conducting research and writing papers that help them continue to build their theoretical knowledge in a variety of fields.

Even within their chosen discipline, they often spend a significant amount of time exploring theory, ideas, and procedures used by other professionals in the industry. They have significantly fewer opportunities to actually put these ideas to work compared to students going through a vocational education situation. The skills for work and vocational pathways are significantly limited for these students, as their theoretical knowledge does not have the work experience that helps them transition from a classroom study topic into their actual profession. This can sometimes cause challenges when the students graduate and transition into the working world.

However, for students in a vocational education and training setting, this situation gets corrected. Students spend hours in the practical workshops each week learning hands-on practical skills related to their chosen field. Class time tends to increase in these schools, compared to their outside research time, because students spend more time exploring actual work opportunities that prepare them for their future jobs. They do not focus as much time on researching the theoretical as learning the practical.

Students also have courses that will walk them through chances to use the highly specialized equipment and spaces that they need to do their jobs well. Rather than simply learning about this type of equipment or how it might be useful in the job, they actually have the chance to try out their own skills while still in school. When the time comes for them to transition to an actual job, they have the experience they need to begin the job right away. They will not have to spend time learning how to physically operate the equipment on the job, allowing them to become a valuable employee and build a career faster.

Students do not enter the work field with little practical experience regarding the tools and environments in which they will work. Instead, they have specifically worked in these situations throughout their education under the supervision of their trainers. This creates a more favorable employability skills assessment. Potential employers can look at the academic record of these students and know the type of skills they will already have when they first enter the building. This effect can be leveraged even more, when a training institution is applying a competency based training approach that is mapped with the industry’s needs.

For those interested in learning how to enhance employability skills, therefore, the first solution should lie in vocational learning opportunities. These skills can help students learn the techniques and strategies that they specifically need for this area of work and ensure that they are prepared to succeed. Employers can feel confident that the candidates they receive from a quality school already have the experience and training they need to begin work right away.

Many graduates struggle to find employment immediately following graduation. It can be a stressful time for many students, trying to balance their last few months of studies as they begin to submit applications and search for positions in their chosen field of work. For students who have graduated from a vocational training school, however, this situation can go a bit differently. They have the experience to list on their resume and employers know they have a significant portion of the training they need. Often they even have started building a professional network through their job placements and internships they could potentially leverage. This helps to open doors to new possibilities.

Graduates often want to know how they can enhance their employability opportunities. The answer lies in gaining the work experience that employers want to see. Bringing this experience can make it significantly easier to find a job. Experience gives employers more insight into how a candidate will perform on the job and how many resources will need to be dedicated to training a new hire for the job. For vocational students, these work experiences become part of the curriculum.

Throughout the studies, students gain hands-on opportunities through internships and practical learning opportunities. Completing real work projects, as they do in a variety of classes, helps students build employable resumes before they even graduate.

In nearly any industry, the importance of a strong network can play a direct role in finding a job and building a successful career. Connections and relationships can help people find new jobs, learn about new opportunities, and have chances to continue their education and build more career-based skills.

Through a vocation-based education, students have an excellent opportunity to build a strong network that will enhance their learning experience and the rest of their professional careers. With a vocation-based training program, students work more closely with their fellow students and their trainers on their coursework. Since less time is spent independently researching and writing papers and more time is spent in class working on projects and learning practical skills, students naturally develop better and closer relationships with their classmates. Their fellow students transition from being people they simply sit next to in the lecture hall into partners with whom they work during projects and internships.

Similarly, students have more opportunities to get to know their professors. With skills-based training, students work more directly with their trainers. The hands-on opportunities they have to work during their coursework let them complete projects, engage with work tasks, and learn specialized techniques under the direct supervision of the trainer. Trainers are there to provide support and students have opportunities to speak with them and engage with more one-to-one time. This builds relationships and can help students find professional mentors for the transition to the business world. Through internship opportunities, students expand this relationship horizon into the work world, even before graduation.

Altogether, this type of practical classroom experience helps those learning in a vocational training program develop a strong professional network that will benefit them throughout their entire professional career. They will have people who can provide them with insight and guidance as they build a career and find the jobs they want.

Q.3 Discuss the importance of balanced curricular material in the perspective of sexism in curriculum.

In addition to the gender disparity in class participation and teacher attention, education researcher Kathleen Weiler found that male-dominant curricular materials are prevalent in schools throughout the United States.

In my own education research, I recently tallied authors by gender in three language arts textbooks currently in use in the second-largest school district in the United States, Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD). In the eighth-grade language arts textbook, less than 30 percent of the authors were female. (Girls comprise 52 percent of the students in LAUSD.) In the other two textbooks (for ninth grade and 10th grade), the results were similar.

It’s important to note that this particular textbook publisher is one of the largest used in public schools across the United States and, along with language arts textbooks, publishes textbooks for math, science, social studies, and other content areas for high school as well as for elementary grades. Sadker, Sadker, and Zittleman state in their nationwide findings that male characters continue to dominate and outnumber females two-to-one in curricular materials.

Here are some ideas for improving gender equity in your classroom. Please add any strategies you’ve used in the comments section below.

1. If you find more male authors, scientists, and mathematicians featured in the textbook you use, do your own research and add more notable women to the mix.
2. Use wait/think time deliberately. Instead of calling on the first or second hand, choose the fourth, fifth, or sixth.
3. Be aware of the number of female students you call on. Be incredibly proactive in making sure that all students (regardless of gender, ethnicity, language, or learning ability) are equitably included in discussions and participation.
4. Call out sexist notions or terminology in texts used in the classroom—for example, a textbook, magazine article, poem, research report, or blog post. You can also highlight any gender stereotypical language used by students in the classroom and use it to invite broader discussion.
5. Videotape your classes and review your interactions with students. You could also invite a colleague to watch you teach and note which students are being asked questions, and what type of questions.

Female physicians and surgeons earn 38 percent less than their male counterparts, and female lawyers earn 30 percent less than male lawyers, according to Sadker, Sadker, and Zittleman. Education is a vital tool in helping close this wage gap. For teachers, continued monitoring of gender bias is necessary to minimize its impact on students’ opportunities for learning and for achievement.

We all need to work to become more aware of any gender-biased tendencies. We need strategies to help us reflect and change any biased practices, and we need to commit to combating gender bias in educational materials.

Q.4 what is the administrative structure of system of Education in Pakistan?

Education quality in Pakistan is at abysmal level. Starting from primary education to higher education Pakistan has failed to produce effective human resource for national building. Education system of Pakistan is divided in to three broad categories: Public, Private and Madrasah system. Public education system is facing paucity of resources as 89% educational budget is allocated for salaries of teachers and staff and only 11% is left for development. Also, there is significant difference of teaching quality between public and private sector education. Students who reach university level they lack certain qualities like research-oriented approach and creativity. This situation has been aggravated by poor examination system of Pakistan. It is based on cramming approach and discourage creativity among young pupil. Taking in account of matriculation and intermediate examination; the question papers are either definition based or descriptive questions of important topics and students just cram the subject and reproduce it on answer sheets. Also, theoretical portion of science subjects consists of 85% weightage which discourage the practical approach in science subjects.

University level education also depicts the same sub-standard picture as secondary and higher secondary education. University instructors also feed students by providing certain notes to their students, assignments are full of plagiarism and there is serious crisis of research work at graduation level in universities. So, a university graduate complains about unemployment and lack of merit in country; actually, he lacks basic qualities of being a university graduate which are essential to lead the modern industry.

The system of education includes all institutions that are involved in delivering formal education (public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, onsite or virtual instruction) and their faculties, students, physical infrastructure, resources and rules. In a broader definition the system also includes the institutions that are directly involved in financing, managing, operating or regulating such institutions (like government ministries and regulatory bodies, central testing organizations, textbook boards and accreditation boards). The rules and regulations that guide the individual and institutional interactions within the set up are also part of the education system.

Education system of Pakistan:

The education system of Pakistan is comprised of 260,903 institutions and is facilitating 41,018,384 students with the help of 1,535,461 teachers. The system includes 180,846 public institutions and 80,057 private institutions. Hence 31% educational institutes are run by private sector while 69% are public institutes.

Analysis of education system in Pakistan

Pakistan has expressed its commitment to promote education and literacy in the country by education policies at domestic level and getting involved into international commitments on education. In this regard national education policies are the visions which suggest strategies to increase literacy rate, capacity building, and enhance facilities in the schools and educational institutes. MDGs and EFA programmes are global commitments of Pakistan for the promotion of literacy.

A review of the education system of Pakistan suggests that there has been little change in Pakistan’s schools since 2010, when the 18th Amendment enshrined education as a fundamental human right in the constitution. Problems of access, quality, infrastructure and inequality of opportunity, remain endemic.

Issues

1. A)    MDGs and Pakistan

Due to the problems in education system of Pakistan, the country is lagging behind in achieving its MDGs of education. The MDGs have laid down two goals for education sector:

Goal 2: The goal 2 of MDGs is to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) and by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. By the year 2014 the enrolment statistics show an increase in the enrolment of students of the age of 3-16 year while dropout rate decreased. But the need for increasing enrolment of students remains high to achieve MDGs target. Punjab is leading province wise in net primary enrolment rate with 62% enrolment. The enrolment rate in Sindh province is 52%, in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) 54% and primary enrolment rate in Balochistan is 45%.

Goal 3: The goal 3 of MDGs is Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. It is aimed at eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and in all levels of education not later than 2015. There is a stark disparity between male and female literacy rates. The national literacy rate of male was 71% while that of female was 48% in 2012-13. Provinces reported the same gender disparity. Punjab literacy rate in male was 71% and for females it was 54%. In Sindh literacy rate in male was 72% and female 47%, in KPK male 70% and females 35%, while in Balochistan male 62% and female 23%.

1. B)    Education for All (EFA) Commitment

The EFA goals focus on early childhood care and education including pre-schooling, universal primary education and secondary education to youth, adult literacy with gender parity and quality of education as crosscutting thematic and programme priorities.

EFA Review Report October 2014 outlines that despite repeated policy commitments, primary education in Pakistan is lagging behind in achieving its target of universal primary education. Currently the primary gross enrolment rate stands at 85.9% while Pakistan requires increasing it up to 100% by 2015-16 to fulfil EFA goals.  Of the estimated total primary school going 21.4 million children of ages 5-9 years, 68.5% are enrolled in schools, of which 8.2 million or 56% are boys and 6.5 million or 44% are girls. Economic Survey of Pakistan confirms that during the year 2013-14 literacy remained much higher in urban areas than in rural areas and higher among males.

1. C)    Vision 2030

Vision 2030 of Planning Commission of Pakistan looks for an academic environment which promotes the thinking mind. The goal under Vision 2030 is one curriculum and one national examination system under state responsibility. The strategies charted out to achieve the goal included:

(i)                  Increasing public expenditure on education and skills generation from 2.7% of GDP to 5% by 2010 and 7% by 2015.

(ii)                Re-introduce the technical and vocational stream in the last two years of secondary schools.

(iii)             Gradually increase vocational and technical education numbers to 25-30% of all secondary enrolment by 2015 and 50 per cent by 2030.

(iv)              Enhance the scale and quality of education in general and the scale and quality of scientific/technical education in Pakistan in particular.

Problems: The issues lead to the comprehension of the problems which are faced in the development of education system and promotion of literacy. The study outlines seven major problems such as:

1)      Lack of Proper Planning: Pakistan is a signatory to MDGs and EFA goals. However it seems that it will not be able to achieve these international commitments because of financial management issues and constraints to achieve the MDGs and EFA goals.

2)      Social constraints: It is important to realize that the problems which hinder the provision of education are not just due to issues of management by government but some of them are deeply rooted in the social and cultural orientation of the people. Overcoming the latter is difficult and would require a change in attitude of the people, until then universal primary education is difficult to achieve.

3)      Gender gap: Major factors that hinder enrolment rates of girls include poverty, cultural constraints, illiteracy of parents and parental concerns about safety and mobility of their daughters. Society’s emphasis on girl’s modesty, protection and early marriages may limit family’s willingness to send them to school. Enrolment of rural girls is 45% lower than that of urban girls; while for boys the difference is 10% only, showing that gender gap is an important factor.

4)      Cost of education: The economic cost is higher in private schools, but these are located in richer settlements only. The paradox is that private schools are better but not everywhere and government schools ensure equitable access but do not provide quality education.

5)      War on Terror: Pakistan’s engagement in war against terrorism also affected the promotion of literacy campaign. The militants targeted schools and students; several educational institutions were blown up, teachers and students were killed in Balochistan, KPK and FATA. This may have to contribute not as much as other factors, but this remains an important factor.

6)      Funds for Education: Pakistan spends 2.4% GDP on education. At national level, 89% education expenditure comprises of current expenses such as teachers’ salaries, while only 11% comprises of development expenditure which is not sufficient to raise quality of education.

7)      Technical Education: Sufficient attention has not been paid to the technical and vocational education in Pakistan. The number of technical and vocational training institutes is not sufficient and many are deprived of infrastructure, teachers and tools for training. The population of a state is one of the main elements of its national power. It can become an asset once it is skilled. Unskilled population means more jobless people in the country, which affects the national development negatively. Therefore, technical education needs priority handling by the government.

Poverty, law and order situation, natural disasters, budgetary constraints, lack of access, poor quality, equity, and governance have also contributed in less enrolments.

An analysis of the issues and problems suggest that:

The official data shows the allocation of funds for educational projects but there is no mechanism which ensures the proper expenditure of those funds on education.

• The existing infrastructure is not being properly utilized in several parts of the country.
• There are various challenges that include expertise, institutional and capacity issues, forging national cohesion, uniform standards for textbook development, and quality assurance.
• The faculty hiring process is historically known to be politicized. It is because of this that the quality of teaching suffers and even more so when low investments are made in teachers’ training. As a result teachers are not regular and their time at school is not as productive as it would be with a well-trained teacher.
• Inside schools there are challenges which include shortage of teachers, teacher absenteeism, missing basic facilities and lack of friendly environment.
• Out of school challenges include shortage of schools, distance – especially for females, insecurity, poverty, cultural norms, parents are reluctant or parents lack awareness.

Q.5 what are the advantages and disadvantages of annual system of examination?

We all remember the exam period in schools. The daunting experience of entering the examination hall, finding your name on the exam desk and taking a seat with a booklet with blank paper and unknown questions. The sweaty hand palms and sickness feeling that seems to have made you forget everything that you have been revising for over the last previous few weeks (or in my case few days, I have always been a bit last minute). In all those years of school, college and university I always wondered what the main purpose was for exams. What would this stress achieve later in our lives? Luckily I am able to look into all this and finally learn that the stressful weeks truly are beneficial.

“Exams have an important role in the process of learning and in the whole educational institution.”

Exams and tests are a great way to assess what the students have learned with regards to particular subjects. Exams will show what part of the lesson each student seems to have taken the most interest in and has remembered.

With every pupil being so individual, exams are also a great way for teachers to find out more about the students themselves. The test environment comes with added stress, which allows teachers to work out how their students argue and how they think individually by their works, which is a great attribute for them to keep in mind for future class activities.

Strengths and weaknesses can also be assessed through exams. The teachers will be able to understand where more attention in class may be needed when teaching the particular subject. A pattern of weaknesses may be apparent when marking the works. This is where mock tests are a great technique to use when teaching before the formal examinations. This will give students and teachers the opportunity to understand where their weaknesses may be, in time for the preparation of the formal exam. This will give them all the chance to ensure that they are able to achieve the best of their abilities in class, thus helping them in the future.

School becomes more demanding as you get older. As you grow as a person, you also do as a student and the school curriculum becomes more demanding. Exams allow higher education establishments to assess whether the students applying are going to be able to deal with the work demand. Although this idea of “ranking students capability based on grades” seems harsh, it is an easier way for them to assess the students’ potential, which becomes even more important with regards to higher education establishments.

The exam process is beneficial to the school in regards to assessing where faculties and particular classes need more focus or resources. Schools need to ensure that they are offering students the best that they are able to and exams are a great technique to use to monitor the progress and effectiveness of that particular class. School administrators can see where improvement may be needed within the school, college or university based on the students’ grades. Studies have shown that a “happier class has higher grades” so a pattern of similar average results may indicate the motivation that a particular class may have or not.

Functions

The Punjab Education Commission functions to:

• Design, develop, implement, maintain, monitor and evaluate a system of examination for elementary education.
• Formulate policies and programs for conducting examinations.
• Collect data from research in order to improve curricula and teaching methodology.
• Recommend strategies for capacity building of the teachers and educationists that in turn would improve the assessment system of students.
• Identify the areas where improvement in training of the teachers or educationists is required.
• Promote public discussions on issues pertaining to elementary education.
• Advise the Government on all policy matters relating to the objectives of the Commission.
• Approve annual research program and annual budget of the Commission.
• Perform functions that may be ancillary to its functions, or as may be prescribed or as may be assigned by the Government.

The Commission may further:

• Issue instructions or guidelines to a local Government for data collection and conduct of an examination of elementary education.
• Register students for the purpose of examination of elementary education and maintain their data.
• Conduct and outsource research in the sphere of an examination of elementary education.