EXAMINATION REFORMS
 

shri shiv samaddar, former steel secretary and member upsc, k-1997 chittaranjan park, new delhi-110019 (5th november, 1990)

- a complete decentralisation of the examination system may not always be conducive to the maintenance of a certain level of competence and may also pose the problems relating to interinstitutional mobility for the students.

Smt. Subhadra jain, marudhar girls school, p.o. Vidyawari, station rani- 306115, distt. Pali (rajasthan)

- the proposal. For examination reform should be implemented.

Shri rajpal tyagi, secretary, all india democratic teacher's organisation, central office-88b.b. Ganguly street, calcutta-700012

- teachers themselves should develop evaluation techniques. Fifty per cent marks should be awarded by the teacher according to the evaluation technique developed by him and fifty per cent be earmarked for the annual examination.

Shri. H.k. Thakur, president, vanavasi seva kendra, p.o. Adhaura, distt. Rohtas, bihar

- degrees should be delinked from employment.

Shri sagar mal sar, t.g.t.(hindi), govt. Girls senior secondary school, patparganj, delhi

- examination system should be improved.

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Shri r.d. Joshi, teacher, h.n. Intercollege, haldwani , nanital

- the system of annual examination should be done away with.

Dr. P.c. Bansal, b-58, inder puri., new delhi. (8Th november, 1990)

the examination reform suggested should first be tried on a pilot basis.

Shri thimmanagouda patil, head master, govt. Model higher primary school, munirabad, distt. Raichur, karnataka (3rd november, 1990)

- examinations need to be made more meaningful and effective. However, the suggestion to have "lists reading" in place of text books is not conducive to the growth of education.

Shri n.r. Hiremath, ex-dy. Director of public instruction, govt. Of karnataka, and principal, sri sarvajana college of education, bangalore (31st october, 1990)

- our exam system suffers from two ills - lack of validity and reliability and malpractice. Firstly, the marks awarded do not represent the real worth of the student. Secondly, our exams have given scope for cheating and falsehood, in which the students, teachers, examiners and parents are involved and thus, vitiating the moral fabric of the society.

The following measures of examinations reform are suggested:

- strenghening teaching-learning process by making the content relevant to the learners and by reducing the load of discrete information and relating the content to direct learning experiences and thus reducing the load on rote memory.

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- Mass copying can be reduced by changing the nature of questions from recall to comprehension, problem solving, analysis and synthasis. Open book examination should be encouraged for reducing the load on memory. Consequently, minimum for passing to be raised to 50%, for 2nd class to 70% and for first class to 80%.

- Over emphasis on the results of public examination and its certificates for selection for jobs or higher education should be avoided. The certificate should indicate the attainment of the student in various areas of learning. The appointing bodies and institutes of higher education should evolve their own criteria for selection.

- Annual examination should be replaced by continuous and comprehensive evaluation of students' progress, throughout the year. It should be based on direct observations, tests and home assignments.

- The ultimate objective should be to replace the public examination, at school level, by certification by the schools.

Smt. K.a. Parwathy, registrar, sri padmavati mahila visvavidyalayam, tirupati-517502 (2nd november, 1990)

- the examination reforms suggested are quite scientific in their objective but frequent workshops should be conducted to train teachers to evaluate in an objective way the performance of students.

Shri d.r. Ghorpade, journalist, miraj 416410

- the existing methods of imparting education and evaluation should

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be changed.

Shri j. Shukla, director of adult education, gujarat state, dr. Jivraj mehta bhavan, block no. 12, 3Rd floor, gandhinagar-382010 (30th october, 1990)

- there should not be any detention upto the end of primary level. But there should be a compulsory public examination at the end of primary level to evaluate not only the student's performance but also the teacher's performance.

Shri k. Ramamoorthy, additional chief secretary, government of gujarat, education department, sardar bhawan, sachivalaya, gandhinagar-382010 (26th october, 1990)

- the idea of replacing public examination at all stages of education is a welcome one.

Shri anil biswas, editor, ganashkti, muzaffar ahmad bhawan, 31, alimuddin street, calcutta-700016 (27th october, 1990)

- the earlier attempt at introducing modular courses and semester examination system at university level have not been successful. As such it is doubtful whether it will succeed at the school level.

- The proposal to replace public examination system through comprehensive and continuous evaluation is certainly desirable but there should be enough infrastructure facilities available for the same before it is introduced. Besides the public examination system provides for equity and uniformity. Institution-wise evaluation exposes the students to discriminatory treatment.

Shri k.k. Tandon, secretary general, punjab state recognised school teachers (& other employees) union h.o. 19 Sewak colony, patiala (30th october, 1990)

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- instead of annual examinations there should be terminal evaluation. Instead of marks a student should be given grades with option to improve within a specified period.

Prof. Atiq a. Siddiqi, co-ordinator, curriculum development centre, department of urdu, aligarh muslim university, aligarh-202001 (24th october, 1990)

- the attempts at introduction of the system of internal assessment in university had been a failure. The system does not seem workable in indian conditions.

Shri p.n. Panicker, state resource centre, kanfed, saksharatha bhavan, trivandrum, (panel discussion held at thituvananthapuram on 1st november; 1990)

- the idea of abolishing a centralised public examination at the end of various stages of education from primary to tertiary and its replacement by a system of comprehensive and continuous internal assessment is worth trying. Students should to be freed from the tyranny of examination. What is needed is a confidence-building effort in the whole system of education. Once this is restored, it would not be difficult to introduce measures like modularisation and semesterisation and credit accumulation. By abolishing the public examination system we would be saving crores of rupees which could be utilised profitably for making education purposeful and meaningful.

Bangalore city south district secondary schools head master's and pre- university college principal's association, kalasipalayam, bangalore- 560002 (recommendations made in a special committee meeting held on 11.10.90)

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- the introduction of the comprehensive and continuous evaluation and remedial work in learning is very welcome. But the elimination of the public examination within a time frame may be unwelcome, even in a situation where recruitment to government and semi-government jobs is done by special recruitment test.

rajya vidwat parishad, rajasthan, adarsh vidya mandir, shiksha mahavidyalaya, raja park, jaipur-302004 (recommendation made in seminar held at jaipur on 13-14th october; 1990

- at the primary stage the text book cannot be replaced by reading material and for the transition of the pupils from one terminal stage to another, there may be some sort of common evaluation system to ensure the acquisition of mini- mum levels of learning and uniformity of standards.

Shri ranjeet singh, general secretary, bhartiya shikshan mandal, uttar pradesh, 2-a/411-a, azad nagar, kanpur

- at primary and secondary level examination should be discontinued. Students should assess themselves. Group discussions should be conducted. Admission to universities and technical institutions should be made through aptitude tests.

Workshop organised by the university of bombay at bombay on 26th september; 1990

- the internal assessment system practised within the bounds of existing pattern has not proved successful mainly because of the disproportionate ratio between students and teachers. The switch over to the new pattern should be done after establishment of proper norms, checks and counter checks.

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Dr. S. Muthukumaran, vice-chancellor, bharathidasan, university, tiruchirapalli, tamil nadu.

- The changes proposed in the system of evaluation are theoretically ideal, but wrought with too many practical. Difficulties. The personal./subjective factors and mutual mistrust among the teachers and the taught affect objective internal/continuous assessment by the teachers. Perhaps, instead of complete internal evaluation by the teacher concerned, an equitable mix of both internal and external evaluation could be introduced with inbuilt checks. The present system of common examination at the x and xii standards may be continued, as they serve, at least partly, as screening tests for higher education. At other levels, district level common examinations may be tried by way of external monitoring. Since the degree can be considered as a mark of eligibility to compete in the entrance tests conducted by user agencies, complete withdrawal of recognition to the degree should not be contemplated.

University of madras and indian university association for continuing education (views expressed in one day discussion held in madras on 21st october, 1990)

- ideally, there should be no public examination upto class viii. Instead, there could be continuous internal assessment. However, the concept of internal assessment needs to be clearly spelt out in greater detail since public examination has acquired credibility of a large extent as compared to the internal assessment by the teacher. Abolition of examinations could result in larger non- performance on the part of the teachers. Continuous internal assessment in practical form would require recurring reorientation of teachers and school administration.

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Seminar organised by institute of education and culture, hyderabad, the university of hyderabad and the osmania university, hyderabad at the central institute of english and foreign languages, hyderabad on 20th21st october, 1990

- the suggestion of examination reform should be first tried on a pilot basis.

Seminar organised by academy of administration, madhya pradesh, bhopal.

- Instead of the existing pattern of certification a system of continuous assessment should be developed. The internal evaluation should be done by the teachers themselves. For admission to specific courses entrance tests be conducted.

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