Educational Initiatives scripts Vigyan Kasauti programme

Test to evaluate school students' understanding of mathematics, science

Educational Initiatives, a programme started by a group of IIM-A alumni, has initiated a plan to check the level of understanding of mathematics and science among school students.

Named Vigyan Kasauti, the programme is being run in association with the Gujarat Science Academy. It aims to reach out to students of 1000 public, private, municipals and government run schools in the state.

Sudhir Ghodke, director, Educational Initiatives, said the initiative aims to bring in a culture of understanding among students, rather than just memorising.

Venkat Krishnan, director, Educational Initiatives, told Business Standard from Mumbai: "We developed and conducted admission tests for the Reliance group of schools in Mumbai and Jamnagar. This involved setting question papers with both subjective and objective content, conduction of the tests, and grading the answer sheets."

Krishnan added that Educational Initiatives has been conducting tests with over 60,000 students participating from 500 leading schools across India. Its test focuses on practical things rather conventional examination pattern.

Sridhar Rajagopalan, director, Educational Initiatives, said: "We are going to work on a cross-state educational benchmarking study in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh focusing on student achievement level in the municipal schools. The project will generate a white paper on the student achievement level in the four states and pin-point specific areas of strength and weakness within different parts of the system."

On the way of assessing students, Ghodke said: "Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing (Asset) is an objective-type, multiple-choice test for students of standard three to twelve.

"It is a scientifically designed, skill-based assessment developed in India for Indian schools. It assesses students' level of proficiency in the skills and concepts underlying the school syllabus and provides them feedback about their strengths and weaknesses. It also indicates patterns of strength and weaknesses in the school as a whole."

We are the independent testing authority and students have found the test to be challenging and the questions required thinking. Teachers have found the pattern of the questions unique and level pertinent to the syllabus covered, Ghodke added.