Open-book exams are worth a try

AS I reflect on the CBSE’s recent decision to introduce open-book exams for Class IX from the 2026-27 academic session, a series of critical questions confront me. I have no hesitation in saying that the idea of open-book exams is a refreshing departure from the prevalent practice that causes acute fear and stress among young students, promotes the coaching centre-driven industry of ‘readymade answers’ and ‘guide books’, intensifies the surveillance machinery to curb mass copying and turns the exam centre into a war zone.

Yet, as a teacher/educator, I must say that the real potential of open-book exams cannot be unfolded unless we are truly committed to an innovative and radical pedagogic practice. In this context, I will make two observations.

First, barring remarkable exceptions that can be seen in select alternative schools based on the educational philosophies of the likes of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Sri Aurobindo, the existing school culture tends to put heavy emphasis on the faculty of memorisation — say, the memorisation of ‘objective’ facts like the dates/years of wars and treaties, or, for that matter, even a scientific theory and a mathematical equation. It encourages rote learning and robs the learning experience of joy, wonder and reflexivity.

It might help one become what Rabindranath Tagore would have regarded as a sophisticated parrot and answer all sorts of discrete questions — Who was Mughal emperor Akbar’s grandfather? What is the formula for measuring the curved surface area of a cylinder? Or, what is the name of Tanzania’s capital?

However, there is no guarantee that this sort of memorisation of ‘hard facts’ necessarily leads to the development of analytical and critical thinking, which is actually needed for seeing beneath the ‘facts’ to understand the socio-political dynamics of history, the deeper meaning of a metaphor a poet used in his poem, or, for that matter, the process of applying a mathematical formula to solve a real-life practical problem.

What is needed is a kind of pedagogic practice that encourages the young learner to sharpen the power of interpretative skills and critical thinking and develop a taste for good books that can take him/her beyond the prescribed textbooks and the official curriculum.

This seems to be an effective way to resist the mechanised process of rote learning and the resultant tendency to copy from textbooks and all sorts of ‘notes’ easily available in the market.

Second, the art of teaching, as I have learned from my experience, is a perpetual process of learning and self-discovery. Unless we radiate the spirit of engaged pedagogy and fresh thinking in the classroom, we cannot inspire young students to undertake a paradigm shift: from mechanised memorisation and rote learning to creative articulation and critical thinking, or, from the fear of exams to the joy of learning.

In a way, to borrow Paulo Freire’s idiom, we need to practise dialogic/problem-posing education: a pedagogic practice that encourages the teacher and the student to walk together and explore the frontiers of knowledge with freshness and critical enquiry.

As a matter of fact, if we ask our students to write open-book exams, we too must be willing to think creatively and work really hard so that the answers to the kind of questions we ask cannot be given without deeper understanding, even if they are allowed to open their books and ‘notes’.

Let me make this point clear through a concrete illustration from history. Imagine that as a teacher, I formulate a question like this: ‘Write a brief note on the implications of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi’. Well, a ‘guide book’ or a textbook might help the student recall a ‘fact’ — a man called Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi on January 30, 1948. However, for a creative and meaningful answer to this question, she/he ought to have some understanding of the mood of the country after the horrors of the Partition and the political/cultural turmoil that confronted the newly independent nation.

In other words, even if you keep your books open, you need to think, reflect and articulate your own understanding. In fact, as teachers, we also need to cultivate the art of formulating the kind of questions and puzzles that encourage the student to think critically, see beyond standardised ‘notes’ and unfold their creative potential. There is no escape — the educators must educate themselves.

Will it be possible, particularly at a time when because of the centrality of MCQ-centric standardised tests, the National Testing Agency will minimise the role of good pedagogues and creative teachers?

Of course, for transforming our classrooms through a radical and innovative pedagogic culture, we need good and vibrant school libraries; we need happy and committed teachers; and, above all, we need a reasonably good teacher-student ratio.

As exclusivist private schools are becoming increasingly profit-oriented, transforming education into a commodity, we need substantial support from the government — financial as well as moral — so that a government school too can feel proud of its vibrant/creative teachers, good libraries and laboratories, and above all, a learning culture that activates a young learner’s critical thinking.

As a teacher, I have no hesitation in saying that open-book exams, if conducted with due care, are difficult, yet immensely beautiful — almost like a celebration of awakened intelligence, creativity and critical thinking.

Hence, I would like to believe that the CBSE authorities are thinking seriously of the kind of pedagogic innovation needed for making the idea of open-book exams a success. Good luck to them!

Avijit Pathak is a sociologist.