Assessment of School Quality

When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who later came to be known as the Mahatma, was a
young student in Rajkot, one day the inspector of schools, Mr Giles, came down to their school.
He wanted to test the students and gave them five words to spell. Mohandas mis-spelt the word
"kettle". The class-teacher was walking around, supervising, and spotting his mistake, silently
urged him to copy from his neighbour. Mohandas could not imagine that the person whose job
was to prevent cheating was actually encouraging him to do so, just to impress the school
inspector.
Though more than a hundred and fifty years have elapsed since this episode, it is an unfortunate
fact that the fundamental problem recorded in it remains a factor even today. Assessments or
school audits are often regarded as a compliance issue to be dealt with, rather than considering
it a great way to understand real issues affecting the teaching-learning process and bridging the
gaps. Systematic and regular school assessments ensure a constant check and up-gradation of
processes and quality levels.
In order to carry out a qualitative assessment of schools, it is important to collect data from a
variety of sources for a holistic view. The following methodology is recommended which takes
into account a larger involvement of direct stakeholders:

1) Self Assessment by School Authorities This group essentially comprises of the school
management and administration staff. They can evaluate the quality of school based on the
defined parameters and identify specific areas of improvement. The key advantage of this
exercise is that the acceptance level is higher, to bring about the required changes in School
for further quality enhancement. It also has a positive trickle down effect such as effective
utilization of school funds towards innovation and qualitative improvements. This is one of
the most cost-effective and high impact method for large-scale school quality evaluations.
2) Feedback from Students This is an extremely crucial aspect of school evaluation and also
a tricky one, as students likes, dislikes and preferences depend on a variety of factors. For
example their relationship with teachers, other students/classmates, personal preferences
towards subjects and many other social factors. For most school children, the social factors
play a more dominant role in their choices compared to any other academic or physical
factor. Again this can be further analyzed in terms of the changing needs and preferences of
students as they grow up. Therefore the way we assess and capture students feedback should
take into account the social and demographic profile. The feedback mechanism or
questionnaire must also be suitably adjusted according to junior and senior classes.
3) Feedback from School Teachers The Assessment should consider parameters which can
enable Teachers to innovate and enhance the teaching-learning process. There can be several
factors where the teachers can give a rating such as adequacy of teaching-learning materials,
responsiveness of school authority/management towards any new requirement or teachers
recommendations, openness to ideas, school policies towards teachers and students etc. In
order to gauge an honest response, it is important to ensure that the teachers share this
 feedback in a comfortable environment without any fear or concern of their employer. While
we may assess the domain and pedagogy skills of a teacher, here again a self-assessment is
recommended, where in the teachers can identify their own areas of improvement and share a
self/professional development plan.
4) Feedback from Parents of the school children In the modern urban society this segment
often forms the most concerned stakeholder. The parents inputs can add great value to the
overall assessment of the school and they can provide good pointers for further improvement.
The society is more and more looking at an overall development of a child and not just
academic achievement. There has been a major shift of focus for many Indian parents from
selecting a school as per average test results only to selection based on learning environment
and learner-centric approach.
5) External Assessment A third party or external assessment is recommended only for
authentication and validation of data received through the above sources. Many of the
national level surveys only depend on audit reports by external parties (especially Govt.
mandates). However, very often this leads to staged audits wherein certain school
arrangements are made only for audit purpose. While surprise visits may seem like an easy
solution, but it does not address the root cause of the problem to identify the gaps and
ensure willingness of all stakeholders (school authorities, teachers, admin staff etc.) to fulfill
those gaps.

The effectiveness of an assessment can ultimately be judged by the value it brings to the
stakeholders.

While many initiatives are being introduced by schools both in the private and public sector to
upgrade quality and standardize processes, here are top 4 initiatives that need large-scale
implementation with rigour:
1) Training of Teachers The teacher training programmes must focus on pedagogy and
include training on formative and summative assessments.
2) Training of School Authorities / Management Staff The school management staff
should get regular training on how to build a positive learning environment. This will
also ensure that school policy decisions are learner friendly.
3) Use of ICT The learning speed can be greatly enhanced by the use of Multimedia
Content for teaching. Every school must make use of technology to upgrade their
teaching methodology.
4) School time-table should encourage creativity & be outcome driven There is an
increasing shift in the education system from being an input-based system to an
outcome-driven approach. Therefore the school time-tables should also be flexible and
adaptive, taking care of the learners needs.

With the fast growing number of schools in India, it is imperative to have a quality driven
approach towards expansion. School assessments implemented with the right spirit will be a key
to ensure delivery of quality education in the country.
Skill Training Assessment Management Partners Ltd. (STAMP) was set up with the
primary objective of providing thought leadership in the assessments space, and offers
specialized services, technological innovations and solutions in the field of education and
skills assessments.

STAMP has conducted 2,50,000+ assessments of school children across India using its
technology platform Learnet-Spotlight.

STAMPs initiatives in the education space also include assessment of ICT School
Coordinators and Teachers of Govt. schools.

Many schools in India have introduced the NSQF (National Skills Qualifications
Framework) scheme to blend vocational subjects in the academic curricula, and STAMP
as an Assessment Body is working closely with the Sector Skill Councils for its successful
implementation.