Karachi
April 15, 2021
“Online classes, online exams,” chanted students across Pakistan in early 2021 as they took to the streets to protest against plans to conduct in-person examinations during the pandemic.
The protests went far beyond the usual complaints about examinations as students raised a number of concerns around the effectiveness of online learning, the safety of in-person examinations and, most importantly, whether their performance would be assessed fairly.
The protest shone a light on assessment, a key aspect of teaching and learning that rarely gets attention. When we hear the word, assessment, it is common to think of rows of students taking a standardised examination in a large hall, but the true scope of assessment is much broader as it refers to the entire system that seeks to measure whether the goals of education are being met.