APPENDIXES : QUESTIONNAIRE
Appendix 1
Committee on Examinations
Central Advisory Board of Education Ministry of Education and Youth Services India
Questionnaire
Replies may please be sent to
PROF. S. V. C. AIYA
(Member-Secretary, Committee on Examinations)
Director, NCERT
SR Aurobindo Marg
New Delhi 16
Introduction At its 35th meeting held on 2nd and 3rd May, 1970, the Central Advisory Board of Education expressed concern about the conduct of public examinations in the country and passed the following resolution:
The Board requests the Chairman to set up a Committee 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.
The Committee on Examinations appointed consists of the following:
1. Union Education Minister-Chairman.
2. Education Minister, Andhra Pradesh-Vice-Chairman.
3. Education Minister, Bihar-Member.
4. Education Minister, Assam-Member.
5. Chief Executive Councillor, Delhi-Member.
6. Mr. A. E. T. Barrow, M.P.-Member.
7. Prof. S. V. C. Aiya, Director, NCERT-Member- Secretary:
This Committee at its first meeting on 6th August, 1970, at Delhi considered various issues and felt that the opinions of those concerned with such examinations should be obtained' by issuing a questionnaire and sending the same to select representative groups of persons. The Questionnaire was finalised by the Committee at its meeting held on 27th August, 1970, and is being sent to individuals in accordance with the decisions of the Committee.
The Questionnaire is enclosed. It contains a very large
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number of questions. It is not expected that every individual, to whom the Questionnaire is sent, will be in a position to furnish answers to all the questions. Therefore, it is the earnest desire of the Committee that the selection of questions to be answered should be left to the individuals concerned.
The replies to the Questionnaire may be typed or handwritten on plain paper. Before putting down a reply, the number of the question may please be prominently written at the very beginning. It will assist the work of the Committee if the reply to each question is written on a separate sheet or half-sheet. However, this is not obligatory and the individuals sending the replies are at liberty to send replies serially written up. The opinions expressed in the replies will be treated as confidential and their circulation will be restricted to the members of the Committee only. The replies to the Questionnaire should be sent by post so as to reach the Member- Secretary on or before 30th September, 1970. The cover containing the replies may please be addressed to the Member-Secretary by mama The name, official designation and the address of the person sending the reply should invariably be furnished along with the replies to the Questionnaire.
NIE Campus
Sri Aurobindo Marg S. V. C. AIYA
NEW DELHI 16 (Director, NCERT)
1st September, 1970. Member-Secretary
Questionnaire 1. Are public examinations, conducted in the manner in which they are conducted at present by our State Boards/Universities, necessary in the larger interests of education?
2. If your answer to Question 1 is in the affirmative, would you recommend public examinations being conducted at different stages of school education instead of conducting one examination at the end?
3. It has been contended that tests of different forms, including oral questioning, observing the students' work, etc., are a much better form of evaluation than a written examination. Do you agree?
4. What are the types of malpractices practised by students, teachers and/or parents prior to the date of commencement of a public examination? Can you suggest ways of minimising the same?
5. What are the types of malpractices that are known to you to have been practised during the conduct of public examinations?
6. Do you think that very rich examinees have been very largely responsible for corrupting the administration for the conduct of public examinations?
7. Do you think that special legislation is necessary for prohibiting the entry of persons other than bona fide candidates to an area within a certain distance from the place where public examinations are held?
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8. Do you think that there are malpractices after the public examinations? If so, of what types are they and what remedies would you suggest for minimising them?
9. Do you think that the increase of malpractices in public examinations in recent years is largely due to the importance attached to marks for admission to pro- fessional institutions and for employment?
10. Do you agree with the statement that the responsibility for the malpractices in public examinations rests not only with the students, teachers and parents but also on the slackness of the administration responsible for the conduct of the examination?
11. Do you agree with the contention that the Malprac- tices in practical examinations in science and profe- ssional subjects are much more than in the written examinations? If so, could you suggest methods for reducing the same?
12. Is it true that the internal examinations or internal assessment, when utilised for declaring the results of students in public examinations, get reduced to a farce? If so, what remedies would you suggest?
13. Do you think that the law and order problems arising during the conduct of public examinations are not entirely traceable to malpractices in such examinations? If so, could you give specific examples of law and order problems as distinct from malpractices leading to law and order problems?
14. The Kothari Commission (1964-66) had recommended the setting up of autonomous colleges by the universi- ties. Do the Acts of incorporation of the different universities in your State have provision for this pur- pose?
15. If there is such a provision, is it restricted to allowing the colleges greater autonomy to arrange the pro-
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grammes of examinations and to conduct the examinations including the declaration of the results?
16. Do you agree that it is better to restrict the autonomy of colleges, in the first instance, to the conduct of examinations only, and to take up the question of giving permission to vary courses of study, etc., at a later stage?
17. If there is no provision in the Acts of incorporation of your universities to grant an autonomous status to colleges, what difficulties do you envisage in getting such legislation through?
18. It is contended that unless detailed rules are made for the grant of autonomy to colleges, colleges not granted autonomy can protest. Under the circumstances, what measures would you suggest?
19. On the same lines as envisaged for autonomous colleges, would you agree to give autonomy to well- established schools for the conduct of their examinations and the declaration of results at the Matriculation/Higher Secondary stage?
20. If your answer to Question 19 is in the affirmative, do you think it would be possible to introduce legislation empowering the State Boards to grant such autonomy to selected schools?
21. It is contended that the results of Universities/State Boards should not constitute the sole criterion for recruitment to the services. In the light of such a contention, it has been suggested that the State Public Service Commissions should conduct tests/examinations for recruitment to the services at all levels in each State. Do you agree to such a suggestion?
22. If your answer to Question 21 is in the affirmative, do you envisage any difficulties in your Government asking your Public Service Commission to do the needful?
23. If the Universities/Boards are made to declare their
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results in grades and stop furnishing marks to candi- dates, do you anticipate any difficulty in asking your professional institutions for engineering, medicine, etc., and, even arts and science colleges, to conduct their own tests/examinations for the admission of students?
24. If it becomes absolutely necessary, legislation may have to be introduced calling upon the Universities/Boards to declare their results in grades only. In such a case, do you anticipate any difficulties for legislating on the subject?
25. Do you agree that there should be separate all- India examinations to pick out extremely bright pupils and award them scholarships for higher studies like the National Science Talent Search Examination?
26. Is it true that the breakdown of law and order in the conduct of public examinations of the Universities/State Secondary Boards occurs mainly in examinations concerned with large numbers, viz., exceeding about 10,000 for the examination as a whole?
27. Could you kindly give some details of the breakdown, of law and order known to you during the period March 1968 to June 1970?
28. Do you know of any case where such breakdown of law and order was due to the defective question papers or improper arrangements for the conduct of the exa- minations?
29. Have there been frequent reports of leakage of question papers in University/Board examinations in your State and, if so, have you reason to believe in the authenticity of such reports?
30. Are the Universities in your State hard-pressed for funds and are, therefore, compelled to effect undesirable economies in the expenditure on the conduct of examinations?
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31. Is it true that the State Boards of Secondary Education have excess of income over expenditure?
32. If your answer to Question 31 is in the affirmative, could you state the order of excess of income during the last three financial years?
33. Has your Government an adequate and effective representation on the Syndicates/Executive Councils of the Universities/Boards?
34. If your answer to Question 33 is in the affirmative, could you give reasons for your representatives not being effective in the control and conduct of different examinations?
35. As a measure of decentralisation, suppose an examination like that of Higher Secondary or Matriculation is held separately for each district with separate papers, etc., say, for groups of about 10,000 students, do you think there could be reduction in the leakage of question papers and in the breakdown of law and order?
36. Is there any practice in your State for collecting the answer scripts of students in examinations like the Matriculation/Higher Secondary at one centre in each district or division and getting the papers examined by the examiners on the spot at such centres?
37. If your answer to Question 36 is in the affirmative, what is your opinion about the success of the scheme from the standpoint of reduction of malpractices and miscarriage of papers resulting in delay in the declaration of results?
38. Do you agree that the attention paid to the extra- curricular activities of students has gone down in the last two decades?
39. If your answer to Question 38 is in the affirmative, what remedies would you like to suggest for correcting the deficiency?
40. Do you think that some credit for good performance in
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extra-curricular activities must be given in public exa- minations, or that the excellence of a student in extra- curricular activities should come up for mention in the certificate issued by the Board/University to the Stu- dent?
41. Do you agree that there should be a clear interval of at least 6-8 weeks between the declaration of results of an examination and the last date for receipt of applications for admission to a higher class?
42. If your answer to Question 41 is in the affirmative, would you be in favour of a general all- India policy for conducting the annual examinations in February/March and declaring the results before the first of May?
43. If your answer to Question 42 is in the affirmative, could you please indicate the consequential measures that will have to be taken?
44. Having regard to the accuracy which can be maintained in the marking of answerscripts in public examinations with an extremely large number of students, viz., exceeding 25,000, would you recommend decentralisation of an examination and the holding of separate examinations with separate question papers for each group of 10,000 students or a similar number?
45. If your answer to Question 44 is in the affirmative, could you suggest some form or method through which the results for different groups could be normalised for purposes of uniformity?
46. Is it at all necessary to attempt any such normalisation as indicated in Question 45?
47. Having regard to the errors in marking, do you agree that, even when marks are assigned to each question, the results of a candidate for a paper should be rounded off in the form of grades?
48. If your answer to Question 47 is in the affirmative, how fine or how coarse should be the grading?
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49. Should the grades in different subjects be utilised through a suitable formula to give the candidate an over-all grade in the examination as a whole?
50. Do you think that an over-all grade is not really necessary?
51. Do you agree to the suggestion that it is wrong to declare the result of a student on the basis of one single examination?
52. If your answer to Question 51 is in the affirmative, are you in favour of holding two public examinations in a year in place of one?
53. Do you agree that the internal assessment of the teachers for essays, home work, class tests, laboratory records, oral examination, etc., is absolutely necessary?
54. If your answer to Question 53 is in the affirmative, do you agree that the performance of the student in the internal assessment should also be shown in the certificate issued by the Board/University?
55. Do you agree that the marks secured by the candidate in internal assessments should form the basis for condoning deficiencies in public examinations?
56. If your answer to Question 55 is not in the affirmative, do you still feel that there should be uniform rules of condonation which give the facility to the examining authority to condone deficiencies in certain subjects on the basis of good performance in certain others?
57. If your answer to Question 56 is in the affirmative, what suggestions have you to make for such condonation so that the final result combines both reliability and validity?