Prof. Raj Shree Dhar
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said, “Leave your stress and nervousness behind and get ready to set those butterflies in your stomach free!”
What is the essence of Pariksha i.e. Examination: it is a way of growing and progressing for the students. But for the purpose of carrying this attitude of the teachers and progressing of the students, a framework must devise methods, to elaborate techniques, to co-ordinate the activities of both the students and the teachers for the students to become living and happy souls. There are students who are inclined towards study but there are other students who have little interest in knowledge and mastery of any kind; and the more freedom they get, the more reckless they tend to become. The trouble is that the strong and brilliant students are able to pierce through cutthroat competition and attain significant learning, but weak students are demoralized and hence filled with despair.
When the students should have dreams of beauty, perfection and greatness or aspire for higher knowledge and a wholly true future, they dream of money and worry how to earn it. So, they think to study only that portion what is useful to them so as to be able to earn great money in future. What is the most important for them is to pass examinations and get certificates, so that they will be able to get good positions and consequently absolute power and money. They have no value for overcoming one’s weakness, one’s incapacity or ignorance. Money has become a corrupting agent and its bad effects on education of students by cramming and cheating lead to nepotism and corruption.
Examination was created in the past to assess a student’s performance, but modern methods of examination have made it a mere fear factor. Examinations are the way to test our knowledge. Without conducting the examinations and test, students don’t concentrate upon their studies and are ignorant of their lessons. Examinations these days often focus on a narrow range of knowledge and skills, which may not fully represent a student’s true abilities or understanding. Some argue that exams place too much emphasis on memorization and rote of information rather than critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Exams can create a high-pressure environment that leads to stress and anxiety for students. At the same time, examinations must be fair; it should evaluate knowledge and ability, be resistant to cheating or leaked question papers.
In ancient India, the students were brought up in an atmosphere of living aspirations like an attitude of understanding and love, attitude of respect, an attitude of patience. The great purpose of Education is to help the students to come forward, to assert mastery and experience instead of short cut methods to get certificates after passing examinations. During examination, the student is asked to store in memory the knowledge gained by others, to regurgitate it in examination papers. This time must pass as it is only a waste of time and energy; instead, the old knowledge (what is already known) should be utilized to find out new knowledge and capacity to apply both old and new knowledge(s). It is this new knowledge called research which should be the aim and means of true education.
Examinations play an important role in assessing the knowledge and understanding of students. From exam results, teachers can identify areas for improvement in students and provide the necessary assistance. Clearly, exams play a crucial role in pinpointing learning gaps. They also facilitate self-analysis in students, allowing them to focus on specific key areas. Self-analysis is a critical skill that can go a long way in ensuring success in all other aspects of life. Only when a person has insight can he or she focus on areas of improvement and become the best version of themselves. A significant importance of exams is that they instill a sense of discipline in students. As exams approach, students make it a point to study regularly. Apart from the academic results it brings, a sense of discipline goes a long way in ensuring success while inching towards the significant milestones of life. Exams also help students learn critical time management skills as they break down the syllabus and work within the available time. Exams are also a testament to organizational and planning skills that can benefit students in later life. Overall, it will not be an exaggeration to say that exams prepare students for the real world. This includes preparing them for their work life and career, as well as for real-life problem-solving and decision-making. Examinations also instill a sense of resilience. In turn, this ability goes a long way in facing real-life challenges.
It should be ensured that the students know exactly what you want them to do. Preferably, the expectations should be articulated to students before they take the exam as well as in the exam instructions. When students are under time pressure, they may make mistakes that have nothing to do with the extent of their learning. Thus, unless your goal is to assess how students perform under time pressure, it is important to design exams that can be reasonably completed in the time allotted. One way to determine how long an exam will take students to complete is to take it yourself and allow students triple the time it took you – or reduce the length or difficulty of the exam.
Switching to computer-based exams holds many advantages such as allowing candidates to get different papers, less instances of cheating and lesser leaks; the pen paper exam having instant question paper generation to avoid leaks is also good for the places without computer technology. The students are too focused on pushing more information into their brains. But the trick isn’t to push the info in but to pull it out. Once you’ve gone through your lessons and covered all the concepts, take some time to absorb them. Then, try to pull out what you remember. This is a proven method to capture the maximum amount of information. This improves your recall ability during exams and strengthens your overall memory.
Designing a new examination system requires debate, discussions of all stake holders including the students on the ideas like fairness, transparency, feedback, question paper leaks, skill-based assessments, technology enabled assessments, link of education with the requirements of nation, abstaining from western education models which focus on marks instead of real learning. Therefore, it is the need of the hour for the examining authorities to remodel its examination-evaluation processes while strengthening its integrity and simultaneously trying to bring in complete transparency in the system.
(The author is Dean, Cluster University of Jammu.)
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