'Delinking teaching from exam is not a viable option'

Which is the most dreaded ‘four letter word’ that makes every student press the panic button? It does not take a nuclear scientist to answer that — ‘exam’ of course. There is so much at stake for a student in that one assessment that exam time each year brings with it increased incidences of stress-related problems among them, with suicide being a leading cause of death. The spillover effect can be seen on parents and society at large.
Teachers go through the grind as well; a large part of a teacher’s job, much to their chagrin, is exam related involving huge back-breaking paper work, leaving them exhausted.  Especially with the semester system, the entire higher education machinery, including teaching and non-teaching staff is in a constant state of readiness to face this eventuality.

In order to ease the universities of their examination conducting responsibilities and also to lighten the teachers’ work so that more time is spent on research, Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal has proposed to set up an independent body for the purpose. This perhaps is also an oblique reference to better exam management, because in the present university level examination, this is the sphere where maximum mismanagement and malpractices exist.

Right from paper setting, conducting exams, evaluation, tabulation to issue of marks cards, much can be said that will open a can of worms. However, a crown is no cure for a headache. Delinking teaching from examination hardly seems a viable option; it is bound to have wide ranging ramifications.

Evaluating a learner in a formal education set up is certainly the job of a teacher, it helps the teacher plan lessons and use it as a tool for diagnosis and further learning. Teaching, learning and examination lie in a continuum, one without the other is incomplete and inadequate. Splitting the task of teaching and examining will affect both the jobs adversely; bearing the brunt of this new measure will ultimately be the hapless students.
One of the classic evidences of our colonial hangover is seen in the education system, which has been put under renewed duress with the dawn of the new ‘knowledge society’ in the 1990s. Service industries like hospitality, retailing, transport, insurance, banking and others, have since become the biggest employers as against manufacturing industries.

While the latter required consistency, precision and following standardised methods in its workers, service industries that cater to people’s varied needs look for employees who possess skills in problem solving, creative thinking, communication and interpersonal relations.

Our ‘one size fits all’ approach in education may have had its take earlier but today it falls short, producing graduates who are found to be ill-equipped thus giving rise to a large posse of educated unemployables. Hence all the hype and stress that is created around examination goes in vain, benefiting nobody.

Reforms
It is time that we talk of examination reforms, more objective evaluation system of testing the student’s real worth rather than going through the paraphernalia of setting up exclusive examination universities. Since years now academia has been engaged in deliberations on how to make examinations more accurate, transparent, fair and valid. While India is putting all out efforts to emerge as a knowledge economy and a world power to reckon with, the focus is on educational reforms, where assessment and certification certainly is of key importance.

There is a need to develop sound evaluation techniques to assess competence as against mere knowledge, rationality, analysis, synthesis and application of knowledge as against cramming. In order to make examination stress free and student friendly, N Nagambika Devi, state commissioner of collegiate education, suggests introduction of open book (OB) examination.

“The present examination system only classifies and crucifies students, testing their memory rather than their comprehension ability and creativity. Open book exam will ensure dual benefit, it will provide a psychological comfort level to students and also minimise incidences of copying,” she says.

In fact studies have shown that OB exam results in more comprehensive preparation for examination, consistent learning, better thinking, content proficiency, opportunity for self evaluation — all these sans anxiety. OB exam has been in use for long in many of the western universities as an accepted evaluation technique. Besides, governments use it for their departmental exams. Why should our universities be left behind?

Further, exam could also be made ‘on demand’ enabling students to take it up on their readiness rather than the system’s convenience. In addition, grades could replace marks, making evaluation more objective. This will however entail drastic changes in the mode of paper-setting and conducting examinations, requiring teachers to be retrained so that they can rightfully be the primary evaluators.

All these transformations would require sincerity of purpose and hard work, but when the outcome is positive it is worth its while indeed.
(The writer is an educationist)