Outcome Based Education and its Relevance in National Education Policy

Abstract

Outcome based education or OBE is a student-centric educational model that maps & measures students’ performance at every step. The OBE model aims to maximize student learning outcomes by developing their knowledge & skills.

The outcome based education system, also referred to as standard based education, has proven to be a success in helping institutions measure their learning outcomes and at the same time enabling students to develop new skills that prepare them to stand out with their global counterparts.

On the contrary, when we speak of the traditional education system, it is highly dependent on theoretical aspects of learning. It repeats the humdrum way of teaching-learning process that just focuses on memorizing skills of students rather than skill development.It hardly provides any chance for students to develop new skills which might be useful for building their careers. In a traditional system, teachers are more focused on completing the curriculum with the given time frame rather than innovating

Outcome-based education is one of the most significant global developments in medical education in recent years. This paper presents four case studies of outcome-based education from medical schools in different parts of the world; Scotland; USA; Pakistan; and Singapore. The outcome-based curricula have either been in place for some time, are evolving or are at the planning proposal stage. The outcomes, change process and implementation of the outcome-based approach are described. Variation in the extent to which each medical school has implemented outcome-based education is discussed and key points for successful implementation are highlighted.

JEL Classification: l20