REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EXAMINATIONS CABE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE, INDIA

 INTRODUCTION

1.01. Appointment of the Committee

In our country, malpractices and eruption of violence during the progress of an examination or after an examination have increased considerably during the last few years. At the 35th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, held at New Delhi on the 2nd and 3rd of May 1970, most members expressed considerable concern about the malpractices, eruption of violence, etc., during the progress of our public examinations held in the different parts of the country. The Board, therefore, passed the following resolution which appears as resolution 12 in the minutes of the 35th meeting of the Board:

"The Board requests the Chairman to set up a Com- mittee on Examinations which will examine the present situation and make recommendations to counteract malpractices and to give protection to invigilators and others concerned with examinations."

Pursuant to the above resolution, the Chairman of the Central Advisory Board of Education appointed a Committee as shown below for the purpose:

CHAIRMAN

Union Education Minister

VICE-CHAIRMAN

Education Minister, Andhra Pradesh

MEMBERS

Education Minister, Bihar

Education Minister, Assam

Chief Executive Councillor, Delhi

Mr. A. E. T. Barrow

MEMBER-SECRETARY

Prof. S V. C. Aiya, Director, N.C.E.R.T.

1.02. Meetings of the Committee

The Committee held six meetings in all as follows:

(a) First meeting-Delhi-6th August, 1970.

(b) Second meeting-Srinagar-27th August, 1970.

(d) Fourth meeting-Delhi-14th November, 1970.

(e) Fifth meeting-Delhi-11th and 12th January. 1971.

(f) Sixth meeting-Hyderabad-31st May and 1st June 1971.

In addition, there were several occasions on which the various problems were discussed by individual members of the Committee (or their representatives) and the Member Secretary.

During his visit to the United Kingdom in September-October, 1970, at the invitation of the Centre for Educational Development Overseas, the Member-Secretary, under instructions from the Committee, devoted considerable time to the study of the problem of examinations and had discussions with British experts in the field. A special mention should be made of the valuable and long discussions with Mr Robert Morris, Director, Curriculum and Examinations. CEDO, and Dr D. M. McIntosh, Principal, Moray House College of Education, Edinburgh. As the Committee was of the view that the system of examinations in other countries would prove useful in its deliberations, the Member- Secretary collected relevant material during his visit.

1.03. Committee's Discussions

At the first meeting of the Committee, the Chairman

highlighted the main issues. An abstract of the Chairman's speech is given in Appendix 6. Thereafter, the Committee discussed the basic document prepared by the MemberSecretary and drew up detailed plans for its work. The Member-Secretary was asked to prepare a questionnaire to be sent to representative groups and individuals. The draft questionnaire was approved, with appropriate modifications, at the second meeting of the Committee at Srinagar. At this meeting, the Committee also conferred with officers of the Department of Education in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on examination problems. A summary of the discussions is given in Appendix 6. At its third meeting held at Pondicherry, the Committee visited the Aurobindo Ashram and discussed the Free Progress System of the International Centre of Education at the Ashram. A description of this system is furnished in Appendix 4. In addition, the Committee had valuable dis- cussions with the Lt. Governor, the Chief Minister and other Ministers, and officers of the Education Department of Pondicherry.

At its fourth meeting held at Delhi, the Committee formulated the important issues on which it had to take decisions, outlined its main recommendations and drew up plans for the drafting of the report. At the fifth and sixth meetings of the Committee, the draft report was discussed in detail and modifications suggested.

1.04. The Questionnaire

The questionnaire as finalised at the second meeting of the Committee is reproduced in Appendix 1. At the outset, it was realised that the questionnaire could not possibly be sent to too large a number of individuals and organisations in the different parts of the country. Therefore, a decision was taken on the list of individuals and organisations to whom the questionnaire should be sent. In addition, the Vice-Chairman of the Committee was requested to give wide publicity, through the press, to the

questionnaire. Individual members of the Committee volunteered to circulate the questionnaire among interested persons known to them. The questionnaire with a covering demi-official letter from the Vice- Chairman was sent to all the Ministers of Education in the States and Union Territories. The Member-Secretary sent the questionnaire to Education Secretaries and Directors of Education in the States and Union Territories, Vice-Chancellors of Universities, Chairmen of State Boards of Education and other educationists. In this way, the Committee attempted to elicit opinion from as many persons as possible connected with education. Although, as anticipated, the number of replies to the questionnaire was limited, it must be said to the credit of those who replied that they took considerable care in formulating their answers, to the questionnaire. To illustrate this, a typical reply to the questionnaire is reproduced in Appendix 10.

A study of the replies received was undertaken by Messrs R. G. Misra, K. N. Hiriyanniah and R. K. Mathur of the National Council of Educational Research and Training. On the basis of this study, an analysis of the replies to the questionnaire was prepared and used for posing problems and formulating solutions. The analysis of the replies to the questionnaire is given in Appendix 9.

1.05. Appendixes

Taking into account the large volume of material which the Committee had to present in its report, a decision was taken that the bulk of the material collected should be furnished through appendixes and that each appendix should become a self-contained document. They fall into three categories. In the first category come the questionnaire, a typical reply to the questionnaire and the analysis of the replies received to the questionnaire. These are furnished in Appendixes 1, 10 and 9, respectively. Typical systems of examination have been described in the second category of appendixes. Appendix 2 gives the

Swedish System which is considered one of the best in the world. Appendix 3 gives the manner in which large-scale examining is undertaken in the United States of America. Appendix 4 gives the Free Progress System adopted by the International Centre of Education at the Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Appendix 5 gives the practice in Soviet schools. This was specially written by UNESCO experts from the U.S.S.R. who were working at the National Council of Educational Research and Training. Appendix 11 gives the Principles of Scaling and the Use of Grades used in examinations of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations. In the third category are those setting out the views and opinions including those on public examinations abroad and the work done by the National Council of Educational Research and Training on examination reform. (Appendixes 6, 7 and 8.)

1.06. The Report

The report has deliberately been made brief. It analyses the present situation and attempts to suggest short-term and long-range remedies. The points discussed and conclusions reached are based on the relevant material collected by the Member-Secretary, memoranda submitted by individuals, views expressed by educationists, systems prevailing in other countries, financial and other difficulties that we have to face in our country. The Committee realises that it has to deal with a problem which falls essentially within the powers of State Governments. Any change, however desirable, can be brought about only through the willingness and active cooperation of the State Govern- ments. The Committee also realises that, unless all the States agree to a uniform pattern, the results cannot be uniformly beneficial. The Committee was keenly aware of the limitations under which our teachers and examiners have to work and the general attitude of the public towards

examinations. All these, factors have had necessarily to be kept in view while formulating remedial measures.

1.07. Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Messrs Robert Morris, D. M. McIntosh R. G. Misra, K. M. Hiriyanniah, H. S. Singha, Kireet Joshi, R. A. Abulkhanov, M. G. Kalpakov, V. M. Galushin, V. V. Nathan, N. D. J. Rao and D. S. Misra for their individual contributions directly or indirectly to this report and to the Delhi Administration, the Governments of Jammu and Kashmir, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh for facilities and hospitality for the meetings of the Committee.