Repetitive, recall-based questions fail to develop analytical skills and leave students ill-prepared for the future, despite NEP 2020’s clear reform direction
Nowsheen Mushtaq
For nearly fifteen years, the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) examinations have followed a repetitive and predictable pattern. Questions are recycled from previous years, structures remain unchanged, and entire sections feel familiar even before the paper is opened. What should be a serious academic assessment increasingly resembles a yearly revision exercise.
At the heart of this issue lies a fundamental misunderstanding of what examinations are meant to achieve.
According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, learning progresses through different cognitive levels: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating. Effective assessments are designed to move beyond simple recall and gradually test higher-order thinking skills. Unfortunately, most JKBOSE question papers remain confined to the lowest level of this hierarchy: remembering.
Students are largely asked to reproduce definitions, explanations, and long answers exactly as they appear in textbooks or guidebooks. Very few questions demand interpretation, analysis, or application of concepts. Critical thinking, personal response, and originality remain largely absent. When the same questions are repeated year after year, even understanding becomes optional. Memorisation alone guarantees success.
This stagnation reflects not only on students, but also on the process of question paper setting itself. Paper setters are expected to brainstorm, interpret the syllabus afresh, and design questions that assess conceptual clarity. Instead, repetition suggests a copy-and-paste culture where intellectual engagement is minimal. When those framing the examination do not challenge themselves, the assessment cannot challenge learners.
As a result, board exams feel mechanical. There is no sense of intellectual newness. No moment that invites students to pause, think, or reason. The examination hall becomes a space for recall rather than reflection.
This approach directly contradicts India’s education reform vision. The National Education Policy 2020 places strong emphasis on competency-based education, critical thinking, conceptual understanding, and application-oriented assessment. The policy explicitly calls for a shift away from rote learning and towards evaluations that test how well students can think, analyse, and solve problems.
NEP 2020 also highlights the need for assessment reform, stating that exams should promote learning rather than merely rank students. It encourages boards to redesign question papers to include case-based questions, analytical responses, and real-life application of knowledge. In this context, the repetitive nature of JKBOSE exams appears outdated and misaligned with national educational goals.
The consequences of such assessment practices are long-lasting. Students trained primarily to memorise struggle when faced with higher education, competitive examinations, or professional environments that demand reasoning and adaptability. Bright learners with strong analytical abilities often feel constrained, while rote learners are disproportionately rewarded.
Education boards carry the responsibility of shaping not just results, but mindsets. When exams consistently reward memory over understanding, they silently teach students that thinking is unnecessary. This undermines the very purpose of education.
Introducing fresh, concept-driven questions does not make exams unfair. It makes them meaningful. Aligning question papers with Bloom’s higher cognitive levels and the vision of NEP 2020 would be a step towards restoring credibility to board examinations.
Until such reforms are implemented, JKBOSE exams will continue to test how well students remember the past rather than how well they are prepared for the future.
And that remains the greatest failure of all.
The writer is an English educator
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