Competency-Based Education and Remote Learning for Indian Schools

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Competency-Based Education and Remote Learning
for Indian Schools
Even before the outbreak of the novel corona
virus pandemic, the world was already dealing
with a learning crisis, as evidenced by high
levels of Learning Poverty. With the spread of
the COVID-19, among many disruptions to normal
life, 160 countries have mandated temporary
school closures, leaving 1.6 billion children
and youth out of school 1. The World Bank
Education Global Practice- Guidance Note Remote
Learning COVID-19. Although nothing can
replace an in-person schooling experience, school
systems can engage students in meaningful and
productive ways to enhance their learning
Cristobal Cobo, Senior Education and Technology
Policy Expert, 2. This article deals with the
key considerations in a learner-centered remote
teaching-learning system. It also highlights the
methods which might still be used to aim to
ensure all children and youth have access to a
quality education despite the present crisis
situation. A recent circular of CBSE announces
the theme for the capacity building programs for
the year 2020 as Competency-Based Education, and
augmenting the thrust towards this shift, the
board is initiating corresponding changes in the
examination and assessment practices for the year
2020-21 onward. Indian school boards have been
progressively adopting Competency-Based Education
(CBE) to improve the quality of education. What
is unique about CBE is that it focuses on what
students learn and not on the time spent in the
classroom completing credits. One of the key
benefits of CBE is that learning is focused on
real-world skills and competency development.
Programs are designed around competencies that
are needed for a career ensuring that the
instructional material is relevant.
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The outcome is that students are workplace ready
and have expertise in their chosen fields. CBE
implementation by Indian Education Boards The
National Council Of Educational Research And
Training (NCERT) developed "Learning Outcomes at
the Elementary Stage" in 2017 3 for each class
and subject . The learning outcomes are
competency-based and are linked with curricular
expectations and pedagogical processes. In
continuation learning outcomes for the secondary
stage for all subjects have been developed in
2019 4 . This has proved to be very useful to
teachers and stakeholders and is being used
widely to gauge the progress of learning. Various
school boards in India have progressively adopted
an outcomes-based approach to improve the quality
of education. A recent circular of the Central
Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announces the
theme for the capacity building programs for the
year 2020 as Competency-Based Education 5. CBSE
Circular No. Acad-18/2020, March 16, 2020., and
augmenting the thrust towards CBE, the CBSE board
is initiating corresponding changes in the
examination and assessment practices for the year
2020-21 onward. In yet another circular, CBSE
requested educators to make the COVID-19
quarantine productive by defining and designing a
system based on Learning Outcomes and work around
literacies and competencies needed in real-life
contexts 6. CBSE Circular No. Acad-20/2020,
March 25, 2020.. The Council for the Indian
School Certificate Examinations (ISCE) already
has its curriculum built around learning outcomes
7. Competency-based Education The origin of the
concept of CBE evolved out of the several years
of research in the mind-brain sciences, learning
theory, and research on youth development. Four
key principles evolved emphasizing a
learner-centered approach rather than a
teacher-centered approach to education. The
principles stated that
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1. learning is personalized 2. it is
competency-based 3. takes place anytime,
anywhere and 4. students have agency and
ownership over their learning. Teachers are
merely facilitators to enable transfer of
knowledge and skills, and guiding dispositions by
creating a positive mindset and encouraging
habits of learning. These key principles, when
guided by a coherent and rigorous set of
educational goals, lead to a deeper learning
process with the necessary outcomes to prepare
every student for college, career, and civic
life. When the education boards pitched for the
concept of innovative schools, it was not merely
about implementing STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, Mathematics), AI (Artificial
Intelligence), Robotics or other new-age liberal
curricula, but rather the emphasis was on every
school sharing the vision and using different
techniques to translate the student-centered
principles into practice by reaching a
high-quality implementation across the four key
principles achieve the goal of college, career
and civic success for all students and focus on
building communities of educators with the skills
to deliver CBE. The innovative schools, thus,
must adopt progressive, creative and innovative
educational ideas, formulate high standards for
students, staff, and community involvement. They
must adopt proven practices to improve student
success and close the achievement and opportunity
gaps by using multiple approaches to address
differential learning styles. Innovative schools
provide a high level of experiential learning and
they follow the key domains of global competence
8. Systems Thinking in Education While seeing
through the lens of systems thinking, the
multiple teachinglearning systems happen all at
once, connected not just in one direction, but in
many directions simultaneously. For improving
quality outcomes,
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such systems would include a reference framework
a framework of learning outcomes, a system of
designing and delivering authentic assessments,
and providing meaningful and timely personalized
feedback and differentiated support to all
learners, within the domain of global competence.
In order to achieve these goals, restructuring
and rethinking about student and teacher profiles
aligned with the 21st-century skills-set has
become imperative. The PISA (Programme for
International Student Assessment)9 has been
developed by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) as a testing
tool for global competence. India is all set to
participate in the PISA-Test after a gap of over
a decade. India had participated in PISA in 2009
when it came 72nd among 73 countries 10. In
order to achieve these goals, restructuring and
rethinking about student and teacher profiles
aligned with the 21st-century skills-set has
become imperative. PISA is a competency-based
assessment which unlike content-based assessment,
measures the extent to which students have
acquired key competencies that are essential for
full participation in modern societies. It would
lead to recognition and acceptability of Indian
students and prepare them for the global economy
in the 21st century. Learning from participation
in PISA will help to introduce competency-based
examination reforms in the school system and help
move away from rote learning. The CBSE and NCERT
will be part of the process and activities
leading to the actual test 11. Merely providing
adequate infrastructure, teaching-learning
materials, adequate teaching and non-teaching
staff, providing a conducive environment in the
schools for learning - are not enough
requirements towards the quality education. Along
with this, components of curriculum, syllabus,
pedagogy, examination, affiliation and
accreditation standards are also important
factors which need to be addressed while dealing
with
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quality issues in education. In addition to this,
strengthening assessment and evaluation practices
of the education boards has become very crucial
for the improvement of overall quality of
education. CBSE vide their recent circular (March
16, 2020) have brought out a modified system of
assessment and evaluation for augmenting the
thrust towards CBE. From the year 2020-21 board
examination, the composition of theory
examination for classes IX-X would include 20
objective type questions including
multiple-choice, 20 questions would be
case-based or source-based integrated questions,
and the remaining 60 questions would be short
answers or long answers type questions. For the
classes XI-XII, the percentage of case-based/
source-based integrated questions would be 10,
whereas objective-type questions would be 20 and
remaining would be short/ long-answer type
questions. It is important to note that though
CBSE termed the new system as CBE, however, it is
not a complete implementation of the principles
of CBE. In the current scenario, students advance
upon the end of a fixed period of time regardless
if they fully learned the concepts and skills, as
against CBE where students progress based on
competencies achieved, without a time barred
retention. Nonetheless, this trend is very much
appreciated since there is an element of
Authentic Assessment introduced within the
examination system. Learning from participation
in PISA-2021 is helping to introduce
competency-based examination reforms in the
school system and help move away from rote
learning. The CBSE and NCERT are part of the
process and activities leading to the actual
test. Authentic assessment is the measurement of
learners' accomplishments that are based on
competencies applied in multiple real-life
contexts, as contrasted to multiple choice
standardized tests. Authentic assessment tends to
focus on contextualized tasks, enabling students
to demonstrate their competency in a more
'authentic' setting. However, it is not merely
designing a new type of assessment, but it is
also about rethinking and redefining literacies,
knowledge types, processes, competencies, and
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applying critical thinking and creative thinking
skills in solving real-world problems. Therefore,
it is imperative to consider and design the
learning experience from the perspective of a
complex integrated and interdisciplinary
system. Learn More https//edtechreview.in/trends
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n-and-remote-learning-for-indian-schools