‘Teaching-learning comes easy, but assessment is the difficult part.’ This is an age-old narrative that easily resonates with teachers and students alike. Despite this, assessments in education is a global phenomenon that dates back several centuries. It has withstood the test of time as a reliable means to make critical decisions with regards to educational qualifications, selection, career progression, systemic accountability, etc. It is also domain agnostic with some form of assessments and testing being used across fields ranging from medical science to arts, sports and creative sectors.

Policy documents over the years including the most recent National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 have reiterated the critical position that assessments hold in education. Systemically and institutionally also there is a conscious shift towards making assessments more meaningful and beneficial to aid teaching-learning. Despite all this, why are assessments often seen as separate from teaching learning? What are certain critical gap areas or challenges faced by teachers and students alike when it comes to assessments? How do we bring about a more organic integration between teaching, learning and assessments? What are some directions for the future?

Listen to our faculty Anchal Chomal engage in a Samvad with Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Chief Executive & Secretary of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).

Who should attend?

School teachers, parents, teacher educators, educational functionaries, higher education professionals, practitioners, researchers and anyone with an interest in the domain of educational assessment.

About the speakers

Dr Joseph Emmanuel is the Chief Executive and Secretary of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), leading a network of over 3,000 schools, 3 million students and 1,50,000 teachers across India and beyond. Dr Emmanuel holds a postgraduate degree in commerce and a PhD in financial management, combining strong academic grounding with transformative education sector impact.

With nearly three decades of experience in educational leadership, he has previously served as Director of Academics and Secretary at the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Dr. Emmanuel has driven major national initiatives, including integrating technology in examination systems and spearheading the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020.

During his time at the CBSE, he has played a key role in pioneering competency-based education, introducing key stage assessment framework (SAFAL) and School Quality Assessment and Accreditation (SQAA) framework as well as Holistic Progress Cards (HPCs) impacting millions of learners and educators.

Aanchal Chomal is Associate Director, School of Continuing Education and University Resource Centre at Azim Premji University. She is responsible for the organisation’s work in Assessments (including offering a range of short programmes, certificate programmes and the Diploma for working professionals) along with our partnerships with Central government institutions (including the Central Board of Secondary Education). She has worked across various states and institutions in India offering continuing education programmes; co-developing resource materials and capacity building of teachers, teacher educators and educational functionaries.