 EXAMINATION REFORMS

Shri H.R. Dutt, Research Officer, State Institute of Education, Jammu (25th October, 1990)

- In regard to the proposal for continuous and comprehensive evaluation, it must be remembered that framing objective type question paper is not easy.

Shri H. Thoi Thoi Singh, Education Minister, Manipur (25th October, 1990)

- The public examination system should continue as it serves certain useful purposes. It, however, needs suitable modifications so as to keep pace with the needs of the society. If a change in the system has to be brought about it has to be in a systematic and gradual manner. In doing so equal. importance should be given to both internal and external examinations. Provisions for system choice, subject-wise reading, credit accumulation facilities etc. may be Introduced alongwith continuous and comprehensive internal assessment system.

Shri Hari Kumar Audichya, Education Minister, Rajasthan (25th October, 1990)

- Introduction of modular courses, accumulation of credits and continuous comprehensive internal evaluation are welcome suggestions. In Rajasthan, at present there is no examination in classes I & II but there is a demand that there should be examinations. At least at the end of classes V & VIII there should

be admission tests. It may be too early to do away with the public examinations at the end of classes X and XII.

Shri Kishan Singh Sangwan, Education Minister, Haryana, (25th October, 1990)

- Reform should be introduced in examination so as to curb malpractices.

Shri Rajat Kar, Director, SCERT, Orissa, Bhubaneswar (25th October, 1990)

- Syllabi should not be changed too frequently and efforts should be made to minimise the curricula load.

Shri P. Mathew Samuel, Director of Education, Government of Pondicherry, Pondicherry (25th October, 1990)

- There should be frequent examinations so that the fear of examination is removed from students. The teacher teaching the subject should not be the paper setter. It should be set by some outsider. Examination is necessary to assess the minimum level of competency achieved by the student after completion of a particular course/class.

Shri J.S. Badan, Secretary (Higher Education), Government of Kerala, Thiruvanthapuram (25th October, 1990)

- The fear of examination forces the child to drop out and stay away from the school. The teacher should be entrusted with the responsibility of objective assessment of the children. There is no need for examination up to certain stage.

Prof. P.V. Indresan, IIT Delhi, New Delhi (26th October, 1990)

- Delinking of degrees is a good proposal but it requires modification of recruitment policy.

Dr. K. Raman Pillai, Director State Centre, Thirvananthapuram, (26th October, 1990)

- The proposal to have continuous and comprehensive evaluation in place of the present system of examination is a welcome one.

Prof. V.C. Kulandaiswamy, Vice-Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi (26th October, 1990)

- Efforts at semesterisation and continuous and comprehensive internal evaluation have not succeeded in the past. A case in point is that of the Andhra University. The proposal means more work for teachers and they are not ready to take the same.

Prof. Suraj Bhan Singh, Chairman, Commission for Scientific & Technical. Terminology, New Delhi (26 Oct. 1990)

- Too much decentralisation in the areas of evaluation and formulation of syllabus will lead to lack of uniformity in standards and adoption of corrupt practices.

Dr. A.K. Srivastava, Director, Central. Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore (26 Oct. 1990)

- The experiment of replacing public examination by internal assessment was a failure in the past.

Dr.Jacob Aikara, Department of Sociology of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay (26 Oct. 1990)

- The measures suggested for examination reform in the paper are not going to improve the situation.

All India Federation of Educational Associations, (29th October, 1990)

- Students should have the right to get their answer books re- evaluated.

Prof. A.K. Sharma, Joint Director, NCERT (Views of NCERT) (29 Oct. 1990)

- The freedom of the teacher in the area of evaluation should be subject to the control atleast of the total school faculty.

- When public examinations are replaced there should be a system to ensure comparability in standards all over the country.

Shri Tarseen Lal, General Secretary, Association of Heads of High Schools, Punjab (29 Oct. 1990)

- Children should be evaluated after 10 years of schooling with regard to their intelligence, aptitude and attitude.

Dr. K.L. Johar, Principal, M.L.N. College, Yamuna Nagar (29 Oct. 1990)

- The present examination system needs thorough reforms.

Dr. (Ms.) Vimla Srivastava, Reader, Baikunthi Devi College, Agra (29 Oct. 1990)

- Instead of present examination system Internal assessment with some checks should be encouraged. However, teachers need orientation for this.

Shri Girwa Singh, All. India Democratic Federation, New Delhi (29 Oct. 1990)

- The suggestion on examination reforms would not be very effective, since the public schools will still continue to have the same.

Dr. John Vallamattam, Editor, Indian Currents, New Delhi (30 Oct. 1990)

- Evaluation system should not be mechanical.. Weightage should be given to seminars, workshops, class room work attended and teachers' opinion regarding general behaviour of the pupil in the school.

Shri Shiv Samaddar, Chairman, Academic Council Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardar Shabna and Editor, Educational Technology, (5th Nov.1990)

- The examination system should be decentralised.

Shri Shankar Vedantam, Student, Visweswaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore University, (6th November 1990)

- The idea of modularisation and semesterisation was good but unfortunately a large number of teachers in our country do not have the competency to conduct such tests. Introducing such a reform at this juncture may lead to corruption and neptism. Instead of periodical public examinations, aptitude test may be conducted after a particular stage of education to ascertain if the students want to continue with their education. The system of computerised multiple choice test questions should be introduced in the examinations.

- Examination should be de-linked from the degree. In its place, the students may be given aptitude tests to see whether after attaining or getting some education, he still has an inclination for further education. Alternatively the industry can also test the incumbent for a particular job.

Shri Mrigank Sharma, President, Student Bar Association, National Law School of India, University of Bangalore, Bangalore (7th, November 1990)

- In order to reform the present system of examination, measures like comprehensive and continuous internal evaluation, semesterisation, system of awarding credits and suggested list of readings instead of text books should be introducted.

Shri P. Sreerama Krishnan, Student Member, Syndicate, University of Calicut, Calicut (7th November, 1990)

- Though the concept of continuous and comprehensive assessment is a step in the right direction, the introduction of entrance examination is not desirable.

Shri Gregory Sequeira, President, P.G. Students' Union, Managalore University, Mangala Gangotri (7th November, 1990)

- Examination system should be totally revamped. The measures suggested should ensure that the element of subjectivity would not be there in evaluation.

Shri Anurag Sharma, Office Secretary, All India Democratic Youth Organisation, New Delhi (7th November, 1990)

- The Committee should suggest ways and means to raise the standards of education instead of abolishing public examinations.

- Internal assessment would be very subjective and personalised.

Prof. B.P. Khandelwal, President, Council of Boards of School Education, New Delhi (26th October, 1990)

- Though there is a need to do away with the external. examination at the end of classes X and XII, it has to be gradual and in a phased manner. The abolition may raise many issues of equivalence, horizontal and vertical mobility of students etc. One should look into these before abolishing public examinations. The need of the present hour is to introduce grades instead of marks, avoiding labelling of pass and fail, allowing students to accumulate credits and study at their own pace and taking examination at their own convenience.