Istiaque Hasan :
During the Covid-19 pandemic, teaching and learning have been hampered to a great extent. Teachers have been conducting online classes through Zoom, Meet, Facebook groups and other apps. In order to continue the teaching-learning and assessment process, alternative assessment needs to be considered. The education authority decided to assess students and to promote them to the next class through the use of assignment as an alternative assessment strategy. Students have to submit 10 assignments on a subject within a fixed schedule.
However, assessment of students cannot be done online properly because of the unavailability of gadgets and slow speed of the Internet. Besides, home examinations should be taken through proper gadgets which facilitate invigilation. Some institutes are using Google Forms to take quiz exams of the students. There are some limitations in answering creative questions through online means.
While preparing assignments, students have to read from many sources and then, they have to write based on the guidelines provided by the NCTB. Through the preparation of the assignments, learners develop a clear understanding of the topic and better writing skill. Through extensive reading of related literature alongside the textbooks, students form a strong base of knowledge on that particular topic.
In the first assignment of English from English 1st paper for the HSC students, they had to choose a Bangla/English story to write the summary, likes and dislikes of the story, changes in the story line and finally conclusion. This kind of assignment surely augments the creative faculties of the students. In addition to that, they will develop the critical mindset. In the 2nd assignment, students have to write a paragraph on “Juvenile Delinquencies”. All the necessary instructions are given to prepare the assignments are given clearly.
From my experience, I have found that students usually make mistakes in subject verb agreement, use of parts of speech, faulty sentence pattern, and wrong use of words. As they do not practise writing, they make mistakes here and there. On the other hand, some students exceed the word limit and write what is not wanted. They need to consult a good grammar book and they can follow the sentence structures from that grammar book. Not only grammar books, they can also get help from their teachers and classmates to minimize the mistakes gradually.
In order to avoid mistakes in preparing their assignments, students need to read the instructions carefully. They need to make sure that alongside contents, they are using proper grammar, vocabulary, sentence structures in their writing. They need to revise after completing their writing. They must not copy from any source. They will use their own words to express their ideas. The ability of writing properly does not come in a day; continuous practice and feedback by teachers would make the students skilled in writing.
It is also found from the reading of the submitted assignments that some students work really hard to prepare their assignments. Their assignments are well-written and the learners have good understanding of the assignment requirements. On the other hand, many students copy from various sources such as the Internet, books, or from a friend’s assignments. Although some students plagiarise willingly, some others are not quite aware of the academic offence they are committing. It is seen that students cannot differentiate the right answer from the wrong ones as they lack required knowledge of the particular subject. On some occasions, students face some challenges in completing their assignments because they do not understand the assessment rubrics. Teachers have to take responsibility to make the students aware of the academic offence, assessment rubrics, and the instruction for completing assignments. My experience as a teacher dealing with students and assignments show that when teachers tell them about the instructions of the assignments, students find it easier to complete the tasks. Moreover, teachers’ feedback before or after evaluating the script helps students develop their assignment writing skill. Assignments are graded as ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, ‘good’, and ‘needs improvement’. When assignments are graded as ‘needs improvement’, they (assignments) are returned to the students for further improvement of the assignments and then the students re-submit for grading or the student is declared ‘failed’ in this assignment.
Teachers also face some problems when they evaluate the assignments. Some students do not follow the instructions of the assignments. While evaluating, teachers find that the student has written irrelevant answers. This happens, probably, both the students and the teachers are not much familiar with the assignment writing and evaluating. The stated kinds of issues can be handled through organizing online classes for the students and in-house training for the teachers. However, assignment is a good assessment tool and it can be used properly used in the educational institutions.
(Writer is Assistant Professor, English, Dhaka City College).
