48th Annual COBSE Conference 2019 Focused on “De-Stressing Examinations”

NEW DELHI, October 11: The 48th Annual COBSE conference 2019 was held on October 10, 2019 at Radisson Blu, New Delhi. Inaugurated by Professor Ved Prakash, Ex-Chairman, UGC, the COBSE conference was hosted by NWAC (Northwest Accreditation Commission)/Cognia. The focus theme of the conference was “De-stressing Examination”.

In his inaugural address, Chief Guest Dr Ved Prakash said, “The biggest challenge in front of educators today is to come up with a curriculum that has a futuristic orientation. The education boards not only are responsible for certifying students but also to prepare the children for tomorrow’s world. Students must not be educated on age-old patterns rather they should be made future-ready.”

President of COBSE, Mrs. Asano Sekhose talked about stress on students on account of board exams as well as entrance exams. She called upon the members to figure out evaluation methodologies while minimizing stress.

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examinations, CBSE presented changes brought in by the board in the evaluation and examination process to reduce the stress on students. He mentioned various steps towards this like a uniform evaluation scheme, training of evaluators to remove ambiguity or errors in the evaluation process etc. He also talked about the dual evaluation process adopted by the board to reduce the scope of error. He described some of the other initiatives taken by the board towards de-stressing exams for students.

The conference was attended by more than 100 representatives from across India, USA, Nepal and Bhutan. The delegates at the conference represented national and state boards. Dr Kem Hussain, Senior Vice President, NWAC (Cognia), Dr Annette Bohling, Chief Certification Officer, NWAC (Cognia), Mrs Asano Sekhose, President COBSE & Chairman, Nagaland Board of School Education and Professor Siddharth Pandey, Chairman Organizing Committee (IIT Main 2020) were among the prominent speakers who engaged the eminent gathering.