Telangana plans external exams for government school students from 2026-27

The Telangana School Education department is planning to introduce external assessments for Class I to IX students from the 2026-27 academic year to improve learning outcomes and reduce the gap between students' actual abilities and high pass percentages in schools.

Hyderabad: Government and local body school students may soon have to sit for external exams as the School Education department has drawn up plans to introduce external assessments from the academic year 2026-27.

The external assessment, which will be in addition to the existing formative and summative assessments, is being planned due to concerns over the gap between students’ actual learning abilities and high pass percentages in schools.

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As per the Central government’s Parakh Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 report for Telangana released last year, 75 per cent of Class IX students failed to understand and apply the fundamental concept of percentage to solve a simple mathematics problem.

Another 69 per cent of students from the same standard could not understand sets of numbers, such as whole numbers, fractions, integers, rational numbers and real numbers.

Further, 54 per cent of Class VI students could not recognise, describe or extend simple number patterns. As for Class III students, 52 per cent failed to arrange numbers up to 99 in ascending and descending order, while another 49 per cent were unable to perform simple addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers.

The external assessment system, as per a senior School Education department official, will evaluate Class I to IX students’ learning abilities and understanding of each subject twice in an academic year. Instead of teachers from the same school, teachers randomly selected from other schools will conduct external examinations.

“There is a need to create accountability among teachers for improving students’ learning abilities. Every student must acquire basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. We are planning an external assessment for students of Classes I to IX,” the senior official said.

Apart from conducting examinations, the external teachers will also have to evaluate them, and subject-wise results will have to be shared online with the School Education department. Schools where the results do not meet the benchmark level will be given an opportunity to identify shortcomings and correct them based on the findings.

“The proposed system will initially be implemented in some government and local body schools on a pilot basis, and it will gradually be expanded to all schools across the State. Based on the results, necessary interventions required at a particular school will be initiated,” the senior official added.