APPENDIX K-
MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE
 GOVERNMENT OF TRIPURA TO
 CONSIDER THE QUESTION OF
 INTRODUCTION OF A PAPER IN
 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE IN ALL SCHOOL
 FINAL AND UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
 

Our system of education being too bookish and the examinations too narrow the natural urge to keep one's eyes and ears wide open and pick up knowledge of things from daily happenings and experiences are increasingly smothered. Even reading the daily newspaper has been a rare habit with most students-as is evident from the absurd answers even graduates have made in certain Provinces in the Public Service Examinations. In fact what they learn and what is taught in schools and colleges are not the realities of life-not even abstract subjects of study -but mere questions and answers on certain set and limited topics to get through

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an essay-type of examination. The result is a disastrous limitation in interest and in the knowledge of men and things and the thinking processes of the mind, even among our graduates, not to speak of the lower orders.

2. On the other hand, from the lower grade Clerk-ship to the I. A. S. Examinations conducted by the Public Service Commissions, there is an obligatory paper on General Knowledge; but in our School-Final or University Examinations, there is none. All the candidates from mere Matriculates to the M. A's.-have to prepare for this paper as a new subject. Our Academic Examinations, therefore, do not teach the candidates something essentially necessary for being established in life. The omission of a subject so vital is thus a glaring discrepancy and makes the academic examinations unreal to that extent.

3. To remove this curricular reform, it is proposed that a paper in General Knowledge for every Public Examination of our Secondary Education Boards and Universities may be introduced. While making appearance at the Public Service Examinations easier for them and improving the quality of their answers, such a system will add a sauce to the entire curriculum and gradually leave the whole educational system. It will create newer interests in the students, make their sphere of knowledge broader and stimulate fresh enquiries in them. It will unleash new processes of thinking through discussion of current affairs, collation of facts and figures, and inevitable drawing of rational conclusions. From more collection of unrelated information, it will gradually develop into a cogent and sounder habit of thinking and of doing things.

4. The standard of the papers set will, of course, vary according to the examinations as it does in every other subject, and the marks as assigned for a paper may be 50 in the School-Final and 100 in subsequent examinations. In the School--Final, it may be 100 for Geography and General Knowledge combined, while for higher examinations it should be a paper of 100 marks by itself.

5. No syllabus nor any text books need be selected the newspapers and the ,expected general readings of the students of particular age- group being the basis of questions to be set. But books will inevitably come out, as they have done for the I. A. S. and other Examinations. Even so, the subject will not lose its value. A little of general scientific knowledge-explaining the daily natural phenomena around us should be an essential part of this kind of subject.

6. If it is contended that another subject added to an already cumbersome curriculum will prove an unbearable burden to our boys and girls, it is there ore recommended that some of the existing unreal topics of study, or those that are too abstract, rather than give up general knowledge may be cut out.