TCS to facilitate spoken English tests in entrance exams in Japan

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 28: Spoken English tests are increasingly becoming part of entrance exams for many universities and high schools in Japan. Sapix Yozemi Group (Yoyogi Seminar), a Japanese cram school chain, has selected Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's leading global IT services to transform the conduct of its spoken English tests and evaluation of candidate responses.

The University Admission Common Test will replace the current National Center Test in 2021, a standardized admission test for public and some private universities in Japan, which is expected to include spoken English. To prepare students ahead of time, Yoyogi Seminar has included speaking assessments in all its future tests.

TCS will use TCS iON PAPER device for the purpose. It will equip the preparatory school operator with the capabilities necessary to conduct these tests, including the test environment, test data delivery, and scoring environment. Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON, said,  “TCS iON is focused on continuous innovations and the integration of digital technology to drive transformational change in education ecosystem. We are very happy that Yoyogi Seminar has been an early adopter of TCS iON PAPER along with our path-breaking location-independent marking platform – TCS iON Digital Marking.”

“TCS, leveraging its global expertise on digital to the fullest, strives to be the partner of choice for education customers in their digital transformation journeys at a time of major industry-wide change, and contribute to the enhancement of educational services in the country,” said Masayuki Nakayama, Senior Vice President, TCS Japan.

Test without internet

TCS iON PAPER can securely distribute question papers as well as capture students’ audio responses without the need for internet connections in classrooms. This will enable Yoyogi Seminar to conduct country-wide English language tests at centres that do not have access to the internet. 

Location-independent assessment

In addition, TCS iON Digital Marking platform will be leveraged to enable location-independent assessment with the help of experienced English teachers based in India. TCS will onboard qualify and certified English teachers, who will be rigorously trained on evaluating the audio responses, in a proctored environment. The scoring of the audio responses will be powered by it to deliver test results at speed.

The device was first used this month, for Yoyogi Seminar’s Mock Test for first-year high school students. Toshiro Takamiya, Co-chairman, Sapix Yozemi Group, said, "We have been making efforts to support our students to acquire four key capabilities – listening, speaking, reading, and writing – in English proficiency as is required in this globalized society. By employing TCS' services, we hope that we will be able to introduce better services to our students nationwide."

TCS iON’s Education platforms have been adopted by institutions worldwide, to benefit from the enhanced security, scale, reduced logistical costs, and shorter processing time. The TCS iON PAPER device was launched in 2018 to introduce digital technology in place of traditional paper-based tests.