Indian Education System is one of the largest official bodies in the world as India holds a prime place in the Global education industry.
The country has more than 1.5 million schools with over 260 million students enrolled and about 751 universities and 35,539 colleges. India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world. Around 35.7 million students were enrolled in higher education in India during 2016-17. Currently, India’s higher education system is the largest in the world enrolling over 70 million students while in less than two decades, India has managed to create additional capacity for over 40 million students.
In the years to come India will witness a boom in the student population. Researchers have predicted that by the year 2025 India will lead in terms of student count with the largest 18-22- year-old population that makes a round off count of 119 million. Reforming the examination practices is the need of the hour. Planning efficient assessment techniques that serve the rapid increase of student count in India is becoming a matter of concern, for which Online test maker software is bracing to take the charge. Development of technology in the education system is not a choice but a mandatory requisite.
As rightly said by Heidi-Hayes Jacobs-
“Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event.”
Impact of Online Assessment on the education system
Indian Education Industry is witnessing an era of tremendous change with the introduction of E- Assessment to its decades old examination system. When we are paying an emphasis on how Online Assessment is causing a radical reform in the education system, than let’s take bifocal view of the reason of its eminence.
1. Convenient Application:
Issues such as greater transparency and increased geographical reach have been effectively dealt by the implementation of online assessment. With the increasing penetration of smartphones and internet online test maker software is gaining popularity in the market. Its use in various educational sectors such as coaching institutes, universities, colleges and Government/PSU has brought a revolutionary relief on the logistics.
2. Ease of exam conduction:
The online education market is growing in terms of software that is bent to give ease to the administrators while conducting exam. Features such as test creation, assigning of test, evaluating the answers and delivering the result in time is all that you can obtain by single online test maker software that eliminate the hurdles of earlier examination process.
3. Administrative tasks:
Traditional examination procedure is a circuitous process becoming a non-bearable burden on the administrative level. With around 50% of assessment cycle consisting of administrative tasks, it will be a biggest and fastest portion to offload. With a convenient option to create online tests and carry on with the further aspects of assessment on the very same platform, involvement of administration and logistics takes a backseat.
4. Diverse Applications:
Online Assessments are widely used for formative type of exams. With its effective application in constructing various types of online quizzes and discussions forums, it can be also used to form question papers that are on the pattern of MCQ’S. This technology lends the ease to compute the results and send them to the respective candidates irrespective of where they are situated around the world.
Overview of the Indian Education Market: Contribution of E-Assessment/learning
After US, India is ranking as the second largest market for e-learning. The education market in India is currently valued at US$ 100 billion and is expected to nearly double to US$ 180 billion by 2020. Currently, the school segment is valued at US$ 52 billion and contributes 52 per cent to the education market in India, higher education contributes 15 per cent of the market size, text-book, e-learning and allied services contribute 28 per cent and vocational education in manufacturing and services contributes 5 per cent. Higher education system in India has undergone rapid expansion. Currently, India’s higher education system is the largest in the world enrolling over 70 million students while in less than two decades, India has managed to create additional capacity for over 40 million students. It witnesses spending of over Rs 46,200 crore (US$ 6.93 billion).
With the increasing prevalence of Online education system the growth rate of market is bound to flourish. Contribution of just 28% to the market, the effective implementation of Online Assessment platform can increase this percentage by leaps and bounds.
Stats reference – https://www.ibef.org/industry/education-sector-india.aspx
Conclusion
Online assessment platform is a much needed asset in our Indian education system. Improving the quality of assessment on diverse levels, it is still being implied on a limited spectrum. The question is not whether the application of online examination system is a choice but the real issue is that we are facing an urgency to apply it on a vast scale so as to generate the much needed outcome that will support the core of the education system.
