 LONG-TERM MEASURES

5.01. The World Problem

Many countries of the world have bestowed considerable thought to evolve suitable schemes for education. Yet, the facilities provided for education at different levels do not meet adequately the requirements of the situation. Almost everywhere, there is dissatisfaction with the existing systems of education. Student unrest and the problems it has created for the governments of different countries are well known. The missionary spirit with which teachers approached their problems appears to be fast disappearing. The teaching profession is rapidly becoming similar to other professions.

In the past and, to a large extent even today, the foundations for the thinking on education are laid on past experience. Changes introduced get limited to measures necessary for correcting mistakes discovered. Such an approach was adequate for a slow-moving society. The rapidly changing social order consequent to the impact of tech- nology makes a change of outlook a pressing need. Educationists have to think of the world of tomorrow and not the world of yesterday. Education has to fit a person to a new social order to come. This requires an intelligent anticipation of the needs of society two or three decades later. Such a projection into the future can never be precise. Yet, education planned on such a projection into the future is likely to be more effective and useful than the one planned on past experience. Further, schemes of education should always be made flexible so that changes dictated by necessity can easily be injected into them. Dynamic norms which are more in keeping with a dynamic society are the needs of all future schemes of education.

5.02. A Social Service

Examined on a world basis, relevance of whatever is being done in the schools and in the universities has now assumed a new significance. This is because education is increasingly being linked with gainful employment. Thus, education becomes a social service. Therefore, the purpose for which instruction is given, the manner in which such instruction is assessed, the objectives of such assessment and their relationship to the anticipated needs of society must be so spelt out that parents, teachers, students and the public can easily understand whatever is being done.

As discussed in the previous chapters, larger and larger numbers will have to be dealt with in all schemes of future education. Therefore, the evolution of standardised procedures for assessment becomes necessary.

5.03. Objectives of Education

Elementary education is concerned with educating the child. Such education is expected to be free and compulsory. Whatever the ability of an individual and whatever his handicaps, he must be made to successfully complete this stage of education. Therefore, a child may be taught several subjects in an integrated way and may be permitted to proceed from one stage to the next without formal examinations. The teacher may indirectly evaluate the child and keep the results of such assessment as a document available for use by the school authorities. To declare a child pass or fail and to detain him in any class at the elementary level is undesirable and unnecessary. There can, however, be an examination or a test at the end of the elementary stage to evaluate the satisfactory completion of the courses of study envisaged. Such an evaluation is necessary for making selections for education at the next stage, and, more appropriately, as an index of the success of a social service scheme.

Secondary education need not be compulsory. The

objective of education at this level is to develop competence for scholastic study and trainability in work involving the use of the hand or the combined use of the hand and the mind. At this level, opportunity should be provided to a student to study a number of subjects and grade him in each one of them. The choice of subjects should be governed by the aptitude of the student but the subjects provided should all have relevance to the needs of society. Satisfactory completion of work in a certain prescribed minimum number of subjects should entitle the student for a certificate.

Admissions to institutions of higher learning should be on an extremely selective basis by means of appropriate prediction tests. Facilities should be limited to what the finances can permit. Those who cannot get admission to institutions of higher learning should, however, be provided with opportunities for further education through evening courses, correspondence-cum-intensive training courses, etc.

The duration of a stage of education, viz., secondary education, may be laid down broadly as a certain number of years. The minimum number of subjects to be studied should also be laid down. But brighter students should be provided with opportunities of completing this work in a shorter period and with opportunities for studying many more subjects than the minimum laid down. The injection of such flexibility for catering to the needs of students of varied competence is a pressing necessity.

What has been described above are wider issues which have to be examined by the State authorities but they have a close bearing on the problem of Public Examinations.

5.04. Public Examinations

In any country, a preliminary general assessment of students who have satisfactorily completed a certain stage of education, is necessary on a country-wide basis. Such

assessment forms the basis for a preliminary selection for higher courses of study and for employment. Examined from this point of view, a Public Examination in a suitable form is always necessary. Such an examination may be conducted by a board or a university. Alternatively there could be internal assessment of the students by the teachers of the institution concerned on the basis of norms laid down by such a board or university. The. results of such internal assessments can be subjected to external moderation by a board/university and then utilised as results of a, Public Examination.

The frequency of such Public Examinations should be drastically reduced. There should be one Public Examination at the end of the elementary/middle school stage, another at the end of the secondary stage and yet another at the end of the first degree course. Barring this, no Public Examinations need be held at any other stage below the first degree. Only internal assessments should be made.

Even when a Public Examination is conducted by a board/university, a considerable measure of innovation is possible. Thus, where a higher secondary course is of three years' duration with a certain minimum number of subjects, there is no reason why the study of a certain number of subjects should not be completed in the first, some in the next and the remaining in the third year. In such a case, students should be permitted to take the Public Examination in the subjects they have completed at the end of the first, second or third year, respectively.

Opportunities should also be provided for really good students to complete such a three-year course in two years and utilise the third year to study other subjects or study some selected subjects in greater depth. The average and below-average students may take all the three years to complete the subjects repeating in the second year what they could not complete in the first, and so on. Subject-wise passing may also be adopted with advantage. Thus, each student will be able to attain his full intellectual stature at his own rate. This concept can also be ex-

tended satisfactorily to university education. But, its adoption will require changes in the organisation of teaching and the conduct of examinations.

5.05. Autonomous Institutions

Where large numbers are involved, decentralisation of a Public Examination has been suggested. An ideal level for decentralisation is an institution itself. In such cases, the question of having internal examinations with external moderation to get uniformity of results for all institutions has also been indicated.

A very desirable way of decentralisation is through granting autonomous status to some well-established institutions. Such institutions will then be in a position to arrange for and conduct examinations and declare results. The granting of such an autonomous status has already been recommended, by the Education Commission (1964-66).

The Committee suggests that early steps be taken to implement this recommendation of the Education Commission. Where necessary, the Acts of Incorporation of the Universities should be suitably amended.

In the beginning, autonomy could be suitably restricted. Thus, a college affiliated to a university may be permitted to arrange for its own examinations, set question papers, get the answer scripts evaluated and declare the results on behalf of the university. In all this work, if necessary, the university might associate one or more persons per subject after carefully selecting them from a panel of experts. Such persons would scrutinise and moderate question papers, sample answer scripts and make recommendations for moderation, etc. Later, it may become possible to eliminate this practice and leave everything to the college itself. This is the ultimate objective as it is now envisaged that each institution should conduct its examinations and the results of all such institutions should be externally moderated to realise uniformity.

In exactly the same way, it should be possible to examine the grant of autonomous status to well-established schools.

The Committee, therefore, recommends the grant of autonomous status to well-established schools and colleges at an early date and the introduction of amending legislation wherever necessary for the purpose.

5.06. Budgeting for Education

Since Independence, both the Centre and the States are spending larger and larger amounts of money on education. Increasing attention is being paid to improve the service conditions of teachers. Educational facilities are being made available increasingly to all educable age-groups at State expense. However, the approach to the problem of budgeting has, by and large, become a semi-mechanical one. We budget for education as a whole. Most of the money so allocated is spent for the teaching-learning process. In fact, it is reported that in some cases, We bulk of the recurring expenditure goes entirely to teachers' salaries and the non-recurring expenditure to buildings. It is also reported that several boards of secondary education have an excess of income over expenditure. As far as universities are concerned, they are spending very little from their own funds (beyond the income from examination fees) on research and improvement of the processes of examination.

The development of education is clearly lop-sided. A fresh look at the problem is imperative. It is no longer adequate for universities and boards of secondary education to prescribe syllabi and proceed to conduct examinations on the age-old pattern. The relevance of the curriculum content and its objectives must be carefully examined.

Both at school and college, students will have to be told of the available spheres of employment and of the scope for self-employment. In accordance with their own aptitude for future employment, they will have to be advised

to choose the appropriate subject or subjects. This is highly specialised work. The importance of guidance was realised immediately after Independence, but attempts commensurate with the task have not been made so far to provide facilities for guidance both at school and college level. The time is now ripe for making guidance compulsory in schools and colleges set up for teacher education. Similarly, there should be special facilities afforded for training in guidance to those employed in the colleges affiliated to universities.

Guidance is so important that some facilities for inservice training in guidance for both primary and secondary teachers already employed should be properly planned and provided. Such facilities should, preferably, cover all primary and secondary teachers.

Assessment or examination is one of the most important features of good education. Considerable thought has to go into any scheme of assessment. In most countries large amounts of money are spent on measurement and evaluation with special reference to examinations. Unfortunately, this is a very neglected field in our country. Although measurement and evaluation are included in the courses of study in the colleges of teacher education, no intensive study or research is done. A scientific study of the setting of questions and the design of question papers are problems of considerable importance for both the boards of secondary education and the universities. Similarly, statistical analysis of the results of examination deserves priority, since A enables the authorities to draw conclusions relevant to the educational process as a whole.

A mere recommendation stressing the importance of guidance and assessment will really serve no purpose. What is required is a firm decision to divide the allocation for education into sub-heads. Thus, of every Rs. 100 allocated for education, not more than Rs. 60 should be for the teaching-learning process; at least Rs. 20 should be spent on guidance and the remaining Rs. 20

on studies, research and innovations in the process of examination.

The above scheme indicates specific norms for budgeting in the field-of education. Unless the State and Central Governments adopt such norms and enforce them, the guidance movement so necessary in the modern world will make no impact, and examinations will continue in the current out-moded forms for years to come.

5.07. Research

Almost everywhere in the world everyone stresses the importance of equality of opportunity for education. But the details are never spelt out. Thus, if a student gets admission to a school, this may riot represent equality of opportunity. The evaluation procedures adopted may be defective and the student, although competent, may be condemned. Similarly, almost everyone is concerned with the discovery of talent. If the tools utilised for discovering talent, viz., techniques of evaluation, are defective, the real talent may be kept out and what is not talent may get the benefits! The over-all curriculum, the number of subjects and the techniques of evaluation may vary from one examining authority to another. In such a case, a. student of less competence may get preference in employment over a student of better competence-. This is common knowledge in our country. Some examining authorities declare many in the first class and such first class students can be of much lower calibre than those who have been placed in the second class by some other examining authorities. But, as matters stand, the really more competent second class students can be ruled out even from consideration for employment. This causes more frustration than even the glaring mal- practices discovered in our examinations. Therefore, getting to some form of uniformity in assessment and improving the tools of assessment become extremely important.

There is in the country some talk of examination reform. It is not examination reform which is important.

What is really necessary is a drastic re-thinking on the evaluation process in relation to the purposes for which it is meant. Similarly, there is a reasonable measure of talk on different types of questions. The need of the hour, however, is the problem of deciding on the appropriate percentages of different types of questions, the appropriate number of question papers, etc. Similarly, internal assessments should consist of a variety of tests both written and oral. Here, the problem is one of deciding on such a variety and assigning appropriate statistical weights for each type of test for getting an over-all assessment.

Examination research is a continued activity even in the countries which have embarked on this work decades back. In our country, we have yet to make a proper and well-organised beginning. This has obviously to be. very extensive if it has to make an impact quickly. Thus, there is need for an examination unit in all examining bodies like the universities and boards of education. There is need for a proper full-fledged wing on measurement and evaluation in selected university departments of education. if such a wing is to function properly and effectively, it must have a reasonable number of well-trained statisticians who enjoy equal status with others. There is also need for an examination research wing in organisations like the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the State Councils of Educational Research and Training and in the University Grants Commission. Such centralised wings should be innovators of ideas. The clearing-house work should only be incidental.

Perhaps, the allocation of separate funds for examination research by the Centre may assist research work and accelerate the realisation of useful results.