While Matriculation schools fight over fee structures, mull over teacher salaries, infrastructure, common syllabus and whatnot, there is another side to the whole issue that nobody seems to be talking about: the evaluation system. Reams can be written about the lacunae in this system. I shall leave the field to educationists, pedagogues and policy makers who are better qualified and more experienced than I am. I’d just like to document some practices and incidents that have come to my notice in recent times.
These practices and incidents center around the examination/evaluation system existent in Tamil Nadu. Some are based on first-hand experiences – my observations of students and talks with teachers. The most serious and shocking one is an incident narrated by the victim. A couple are mere hearsay, but in the light of my personal experiences, I am quite convinced that these are not exaggerations, and they are not only likely to be real, but even quite widespread. All of them made me feel embarrassed, ashamed and very very upset to have to say that I belong here, to this state and to this system.
We all know how much importance we give to examinations and scores. The following will show just how the obsession with examinations when carried to a hysterical pitch can defeat the very purpose of education, and very often, the knowledge or skill the examination seeks to evaluate does not exist at all, although the mark sheet sings a different song. So here we go:
* Students I know who have appeared for the Matriculation Class X examination say that their preparation centred more around the examination blueprint and design than around the content or substance they were tested on. To explain, the blueprint lists out the weightages given in the question paper to every chapter/lesson in every subject. The design states which chapters will have long descriptive questions and which will have objective type questions. It stipulates how many questions from each chapter can be expected in the question paper. A quick analysis of the blueprint helps our students plan their preparation. They zero down on which chapters to ignore, and which to focus on.
* An analysis of the last few question papers is also fairly revealing. It throws up patterns that help our students guess even the actual questions that are likely to figure in this year’s paper. A list of probable questions is also circulated by teachers and coaching centers based on a study of earlier papers. This helps students zero down on which questions to study and memorize and which to ignore. Remember also, that about 80% of questions in the Matriculation examination and Higher Secondary examinations come from the end of the lesson in the textbooks. Don’t be surprised to come across hordes of students who only read up prepared answers for questions and not the lessons at all.
* Did you know that one can get by in the Chemistry paper of the Higher Secondary State Board Examination by studying only Volume 1 of the course book? The coursebook comprises 2 books and 22 lessons, but just Volume 1 will get a student ‘average’ marks. A tuition teacher told me this. He also claimed that he could accurately predict most of the questions that will figure in the current Board examination basing it simply on an analysis of previous years’ papers. I believe him.
* Students from well-known, fairly big Matric schools have told me that their teachers have told them to “just read the notes well” in order to do well in the examination, a confidence that comes from the predictability of the paper.
* If that’s bad, here’s worse news: teachers tell me that there are schools where the Class 11 textbooks are not touched at all, that even in Class 11, students are put through Class 12 lessons so that a two-year drill and practice of the content will ensure decent performance in the Board examinations. Where is the question of understanding if the fundamentals are given the go by?
* Now here’s the cherry on the cake, and the rottenest one possible: cheating in the hall, often with invigilators looking the other way. A student recounted how her partner in the examination hall in the heart of Chennai was a private candidate who kept disturbing her with questions, and she had no option but to help with answers because he would not stop.
Worse, during the maths exam, the private candidate openly sought the invigilator’s help with a graph problem. The invigilator, on her part, took away the partner’s worked out graph sheet and gave it to the private candidate!
When her graph sheet was not handed back to her even when it was time to hand in the answer sheets, the student asked for it. She was told that her partner had attached it to his answer sheet and so could she please hand over her answer sheet without it.
This student did so, but made a complaint with a representative from her school present at the centre, who took it up immediately with the examination centre in charge. The result: the student was given a fresh graph sheet and an extra ten minutes to complete it.
And the private candidate? Take a guess!
The student who talked about it later said that cheating was rampant in the hall. While some students asked each other, some even asked the invigilators who were obliging.
Obviously, there's a lot to be fixed there before we talk of fee structures.
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