Ketan | From test-takers to test-makers: How to boost India’s edu assessment capacity

Adi had dreamed of becoming a doctor for as long as she could remember. She knew that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, or NEET (UG), would decide her future, and spent years preparing for it. After falling short in 2023, she took a gap year, worked harder, and significantly improved her score. Yet, due to alleged unfair practices, her rank, which could have been around 6,000 in a typical year, dropped below 24,000 in 2024, so she still missed admission. This raises questions about fairness, validity, and India’s testing capacity -- questions we should no longer ignore.

On May 5, 2024, over 2.3 million candidates took NEET-UG, but allegations of paper leaks and scoring inconsistencies shook public trust. Protests erupted nationwide, with petitions demanding cancellation or a re-exam. Recognising the gravity of the situation, the Supreme Court intervened, confirming a paper leak but ruling it was not widespread enough to cancel the exam. The government formed a high-level committee to recommend reforms and enacted the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024 to curb malpractice in competitive exams.

The NEET-UG 2024 controversy highlights pressing concerns about validity -- not just of the exam itself, but how its scores are interpreted and used. When unfair practices compromise exams, the results no longer accurately reflect students’ abilities. Numerous other exams like the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) and various state recruitment tests have faced similar challenges. At the school level, there have been recurring discussions on issues like revamping school board examinations and re-entry into the international PISA test for 15-year-olds. Together, these concerns point to deeper challenges in how assessments are understood, designed, administered, reported and maintained in India. Some proposals aim to address these challenges, such as online and hybrid exams to prevent leaks and enhanced security measures like encryption and AI.

However, these solutions remain isolated and reactive, targeting only specific issues.

Instead, India needs a cohesive, long-term strategy that prioritises relevance, reliability, validity, and fairness across all types of assessments.

Historically, intelligence tests and large-scale group testing, first used in the military, became common in education in other countries by the 19th century. India’s assessment system relies heavily on these testing models. Structured formats like multiple-choice questions and psychometric models developed more than half a century ago continue to shape assessments even today. Despite its test-driven culture, India has focused more on using these systems as it is than developing models suited specifically to its contextual needs.

Moving forward, the focus must shift from passive adoption to active innovation in assessment design. Yet, there is a lack of formal and technical training in India that is necessary to support this shift. Except for a recently introduced programme in Bengaluru, India has no dedicated graduate-level programmes in educational assessments. This lack of specialised training has left the country without a strong base of assessment professionals.

To address this, universities must introduce programmes that spark student interest, inspiring a new generation of experts to shape the future of assessments in India.

A logical starting point for such programmes would be institutions offering master’s degrees in education, as they already provide students with a foundation in pedagogy and learning processes. Establishing a dedicated two-year master’s programme in educational assessment could build much-needed expertise in this field. The first year could cover educational theories and core measurement principles, including validity, reliability, fairness, and introductory statistics. In the second year, students could take advanced courses in measurement, research, and psychometrics while specialising in 2-3 assessment areas, choosing from classroom, formative, and summative, large-scale accountability assessments, competitive entrance tests, and school-leaving examinations. Beyond coursework, practical experience should be a key component of these programmes. Students should engage in hands-on projects, working directly with examination boards and research and implementation organisations. Universities could leverage their own internal examination and data systems as training grounds, allowing students to engage with real-world assessment tasks to apply their learning meaningfully. Additionally, these programmes should emphasise communication skills, ensuring graduates can effectively convey technical assessment concepts to diverse stakeholders, including students, educators, policymakers, and the public.

With modern assessments becoming increasingly complex, educational assessment programmes must collaborate with the computer science, statistics, psychology, and public policy departments. Advances in data-driven models, adaptive testing, and AI-enhanced assessments require interdisciplinary expertise. Moreover, these programmes should train specialists in different areas -- some focusing on psychometric and statistical methods, others on assessment policy, accountability, accessibility and cultural relevance. There is also a need for assessment experts with subject-specific expertise, as well as those specialising in emerging areas like socio-emotional learning and 21st-century skills, ensuring assessments capture a broader range of student competencies. Developing such graduate-level programmes with interdisciplinary partnerships would enhance the country’s overall assessment expertise. Establishing these programmes beyond metropolitan cities is crucial.

Offering them in regional universities would create a more diverse pool of assessment professionals, leading to better representation and culturally relevant assessments. Flexible admission pathways would further broaden access, attracting candidates from varied academic and professional backgrounds.

Over time, these programmes should lead to the development of higher-level research degrees in educational assessment, psychometrics, and policy. Building a strong foundation of trained assessment professionals and researchers would enable India to develop scientifically rigorous, culturally adaptive, and technically advanced assessment systems.

Investing in formal training is not just an academic necessity --it is crucial for ensuring a credible and fair system where students like Adi are evaluated on their merit so that dedication and talent, not technical incapacity, shape their future.

The writer is a global expert in educational assessments