Do students apply their knowledge, asks educationist

Some 60 years ago (in the composite Madras Presidency), when I was an assistant examiner for SSLC examinations, I awarded a girl from Mangalore 9/10 for an essay in English paper 1 exam. My chief examiner sent me a telegram asking me to come to his place, located 100 km from Coimbatore. He said to me, “As per instructions, we could give, for original answer without any grammar and spelling mistake, a maximum mark of six and seven for extreme cases. So, how come you awarded nine to this candidate?”

 I argued it was a beautiful answer, which couldn’t have been bettered by me myself.  He read it thrice and said the answer was indeed very good but the instruction is clearly not to give more than six. So, he changed the marks awarded by me. The evaluation standard was like that, or at least it used to be.I don’t attach any credence to board examinations (be it class X or XII). After all, how many students who ended up as top rankers can claim not to have gone to coaching centers, when ideally the learning they do in classrooms should alone suffice. I think only 60% of the topics are covered (in the public exams). If 100 marks are then given to students, it amounts to nothing, as the remaining 40% of topics omitted by students is not taken into consideration.

In the former Soviet Union, there were no public examinations. After every lesson in the textbook, there will be questions that students have to answer. They could do so only if they had understood the content thoroughly.  The students are also expected to mark himself (also tests their integrity) and if they don’t get four out of five, they have to learn the lesson all over till he or she comprehends the lesson completely. The very purpose of examination is to test students whether they have fully understood.

When I entered the profession, there were 30-40 textbooks for a single syllabus. As a result, teachers are expected to be aware of the various texts and prepare students on any questions according to the syllabus. Today, only one book is prescribed and if it is studied thoroughly marks can be obtained. Thereby, learning has taken a backseat. While schools and the administration might be happy with the positive results, ultimately what matters is how students apply the knowledge they have gained in order to come up in life.
 
(The writer  a well-known education activist, who retired as the headmaster of a higher secondary school in Coimbatore and has 40 years of teaching experience.)