 SHORT-TERM MEASURES

4.01. Present Position

The conditions pertaining to examinations as they exist today have been reviewed and the causes of malpractices traced. The purpose of examinations and the manner of making them scientific have been discussed. Thus, the previous two chapters furnish the real basis for looking for remedies. In fact, some remedies have got suggested automatically.

In this chapter, concrete recommendations are being made. They are such that they can be implemented within, the framework of our present systems of examinations. Some of these recommendations have to be implemented by the Universities and School Boards of Education. In the case of some others, the State and the Central Governments will have to step in and introduce legislation in order to enable the examining authorities to implement the recommendations.

4.02. Results

The first item of importance is the declaration of results of Public Examinations and the furnishing of statements of marks. These statements of marks are used for a variety of purposes. But, as already explained, the marking method and the ranking based thereon, are both defective and unreliable. They cannot be made the basis either of employment or of admission to higher studies. The only way of delinking employment and admissions from Public Examination results, is to adopt the grade system and eliminate the present practice of furnishing the 'raw' marks secured by candidates. The grade results should be furnished subject-wise. If necessary, an over-

all grade in an examination as a whole may also be furnished, but this is not recommended.

In order to give a complete picture of each candidate's attainments the performance in class-work should also be furnished in the certificate in terms of grades. The teacher's over-all assessment of the candidate's aptitudes and potential should also be shown. This would mean comprehensive internal assessment.

The stigma of haying failed in an examination is undesirable in modern society especially when a student has succeeded, if only partially, in his educational effort. This Committee, therefore, endorses the recommendation of the Education Commission that:

"the certificate issued by the Board on the basis of the results of the external examination at the end of the lower or higher secondary stage, should give the candidates' performance only in those subjects in which he has passed, but there should be no remark that he has failed in the examination as a whole ... and that the candidate should be permitted to appear again, if he so desires, for the entire examination or for separate subjects in order to improve his performance."

The boards/universities should review their statutes, ordinances, regulations, and amend these to do away with the requirement that candidates must pass in a certain number of subjects at one and the same examination.

The Committee is of the view that such insistence is not desirable.

The Committee, therefore, recommends that:

(a) the grade system be adopted;

(b) subject-wise grades be awarded;

(d) comprehensive internal assessment be recorded in the certificate in a form suitably evolved; and

(e) the condition of passing in all subjects at one examination be done away with.

4.03.Conduct of Examinations

The Committee recommends that the following measures, some of which may have already been adopted by some authorities, be hereafter adopted uniformly:

(a) Universities/Boards should be advised to see that all the papers are set by a board of paper-setters and are carefully scrutinised and moderated. The work of finalising the papers including the moderation should be done at a meeting of the board of paper- setters/moderators.

(b) The paper-setters may be appointed at least six months before the scheduled dates of examination, to set and moderate the question papers, to hold meetings and correspond.

(c) The board of paper-setters should be required to prepare an outline of answers and detailed marking schemes for all the questions set in all the papers at all the examinations up to the first degree level.

(d) Subject teachers should be invited to formulate possible questions or question-papers covering the syllabus and send them to the examining bodies with outline answers and marking schemes. These should be collated and made available to the paper-setters for their use.

(e) Where the number of candidates appearing at a Public Examination is large, viz., say about a lakh in the case of schools and about ten thousand in the case of universities, decentralisation should be attempted. Thus, separate arrangements should be made for the conduct of examinations including the setting of papers for each group of about 10,000 school or 1,000 college students.

(f) When such decentralisation is attempted, it is preferable to get all the required question papers for a subject set by one single board of paper-

setters. In such a case, the paper for a subcentre may be selected at random.

(g) It is highly desirable to adopt the system of spot valuation. Many local variations are possible in the system of spot valuation. The main pattern, however, is that answer scripts are collected at a few valuation centres, each centre preferably getting the scripts pertaining to a distant region. Examiners are appointed to these centres and scripts are assigned to them at random for marking. In addition, the system of giving code numbers to answer scripts could also be adopted.

(h) After the initial marking is completed, the exa- mining authority should carry out moderation by adopting well-known statistical procedures.

(i) After finalising the 'raw' marks, the results in each subject should be converted into grades.

(j) In the case of all Public Examinations, copies of question papers set should be made available to the teachers in schools and colleges on the day the paper is taken, but- after the examination is over, and the teachers concerned should be requested to carefully check the question papers, point out errors, insoluble questions, etc., and generally comment on the paper. Such comments should be forwarded through the head of the institution to the examining authority. The examining authority should set up a small group of moderators who should scrutinise such complaints and make appropriate recommendations for moderation. This procedure, if adopted, should be made public both to the students and the teachers. The comments received in this connection should also be forwarded to the paper- setters at the next examination, along, with the material mentioned in clause (d) above.

(k) Examining authorities should award prizes and scholarships to the candidate who stands first in a subject or in the examination. For this purpose, a separate test should be conducted and admission to the same should be limited to those who secured the highest grade in the Public Examination.

(l) Ideally, examinations should be conducted in the institution in which the candidates have studied and a majority of invigilators and superintendents should be drawn from the institution itself. This is, however, not always practicable, as for instance, in the case of remote schools where the number of candidates appearing at the Public Examination may be too small to start a separate centre. Invariably, a fair number of outsiders should also be appointed to do the work of invigilation.

(m) Admission to the centre of a Public Examination should be through one main entrance. Only bona fide candidates and the examination staff with identity cards should be admitted after being checked. Other persons should be prohibited from coming within a certain distance from the place of the examination. Legislation for this purpose should be undertaken, if necessary.

4.04. Legislation

Wherever appropriate, the need for legislation has been stressed both in this chapter and id the previous chapters. However, there is need to take an over-all view of this task. Thus, it is possible for universities and boards to enquire and punish the staff and members of their authorities for examination malpractices. But, it would be more appropriate to provide in the Acts of Incorporation of the Universities/Boards a suitable section empowering the Chan-

cellor/Governor to constitute such committees and make recommendations which should be obligatory on the part of the universities/boards to implement. Such an extraordinary provision is necessary as there can be occasions when some of these bodies may be halting in taking an appropriate action.

Prohibiting the entry of unauthorised persons into or near an examination hall and exercising the right to carry out a physical check of all persons entering an examination hall may require legislation. Certain offences will have to be classified as cognisable offences through legislation. Further, there is need to provide financial assistance to invigilators and examiners who are assaulted during the course of their work. This requires provision of a risk insurance scheme.

Taking an over-all view of the present situation, the need for legislation appears to arise in the following cases:

(a) There is need to amend the Acts of Incorporation of the Universities/Boards so as to provide for a procedure to institute enquiries and punish the staff and members of the authorities for examination malpractices. In such cases, the appointment of committees and the acceptance of recommendations of such committees should vest in the Chancellor/Governor.

(b) There is need to introduce legislation empowering the appropriate authority to prohibit the entry of persons other than the candidates, the examiners and the concerned invigilators within a certain distance from the examination centre. (In proceeding to issue orders under this legislation, great care will have to be exercised as the centres of examination may be located in congested urban areas. One way of getting over this difficulty would be to choose as centres of examination places which can be isolated)

(c) There is need to introduce legislation empowering a physical check of all persons entering examination halls and to restrict admission to only those who have proper identity and admission cards.

(d) To prevent criminal offences leading to injuries to examiners, invigilators and others, a clause of the following type may have to be inserted into the Acts of Incorporation of the Universities/Boards:

"Intimidation or assault or use of criminal force on an examiner, invigilator or any other person employed in connection with the examinations conducted by the Board/ University within a period of two months prior to the commencement of the examination, during the course of the examination and within two months immediately following such an examination, shall be deemed to be an obstruction caused to a public servant in the discharge of his public functions and shall be a cognisable offence."

(e) The risk from assault to invigilators, examiners and others connected with Public Examinations should be covered by insurance. If it is necessary to introduce legislation providing for a proper risk insurance schemes for them, such legislation should be introduced urgently. With the nationalisation of insurance there should be no difficulty in introducing risk insurance schemes.

4.05. Recruitment to the Services

The discussions in Chapter 2 have shown that one of the main causes for malpractices in our Public Examinations is the importance attached to 'raw' marks for purposes of employment and for admission to institutions of higher learning. With the introduction of the grade system, there should be a considerable improvement. However, the Committee suggests that all the State Governments and the Gov- ernment of India should agree that all recruitment to the

services will be made in future on the basis of the results of competitive examinations held purpose-wise by the appropriate authorities. The passing of a Public Examination of the securing of appropriate grades in that examination may be utilised as a criterion for permitting candidates to appear at such competitive examinations and no more. If such competitive examinations are held, it is de- sirable to supplement the Written tests by an oral examination or an interview. In this way due credit will be given to the attainments of the candidate in extra-curricular activities, etc.

A similar procedure should be followed by quasi-government and other organisations. Where the organisations are small, a group of them could get together for the purpose.

The Committee, therefore, recommends that all recruitment to the services should be on the basis of separate competitive examinations conducted purpose-wise by the appropriate agency.

As the upper age limit for purposes of recruitment to government services for different cadres of appointments, whether Class I, Class II or Class III appointments, is generally the same, students proceed to higher courses of study in the hope of improving their chances of recruitment. Thus, a large number of graduates and postgraduates apply for Class III appointments,

If the age limit for the different grades of appointment are different, so that the lower cadres might be filled with persons who pass the high school or higher secondary examinations, the number of candidates proceeding to degree courses OR be reduced. It is, therefore, recommended that the maximum age limit for recruitment to lower clerical and other similar cadres should be reduced to 19 years.

4.06. Admission to Institutions

The results of Public Examinations should, in future, be only used for purposes of making a preliminary selec-

tion of candidates as suitable for admission. Actual admission should be made on the basis of separate entrance tests specifically designed and conducted for each of the different courses. The entrance test should be designed to evaluate the aptitude and potential of the candidate for the course concerned. Further, such an entrance test should be supplemented, where possible, by an interview. There is no reason why one such common entrance test for several states or on an all-India basis could not be organised for admission to, say, all engineering or medical colleges within the country.

In the case of our universities, it should be possible to conduct one common entrance test for science courses and a similar one for arts courses for all the colleges affiliated to the university.

It should be pointed out that the number of candidates appearing for any such entrance test will be invariably much smaller than those appearing for a higher secondary examination. The tests enable the selection of candidates with the requisite aptitude and potential for the course concerned. If the gap between the declaration of the higher secondary examination results and the date of reopening of institutions of higher learning is sufficiently large, there is adequate time to conduct such tests. Further, such tests, will eliminate hardships caused by differences in standards of examinations conducted by different boards/universities.

4.07. Continuous Reappraisal

Every university/board should have the question papers of the different examinations carefully scrutinised by appropriate advisory committees or board of studies. On the basis of these reports, necessary action should be taken against erring examiners. In addition, it is desirable that the boards should be requested to set one or two model question papers and make them available to the examiners, when a subject is being introduced for the

first time. Such model question papers should be made available to teachers and institutions also.

The university/board should set up committees to analyse the results of examinations in different subjects, compare them with those of previous years and make recommendations for improvement.

The university/board should also set up committees to compare the grades obtained by students as a result of internal assessment with those assigned to them at the Public Examination. Wide disparities should be promptly investigated and suitable remedial action taken. These will be in the nature of vigilance and correction committees and their work will be continuous and perpetual.