The Neurotic World of Exam-centric Education !!

In India, education right from primary to high school is exam -centric. The whole purpose of teaching - the complete focus is on how well the child performs in tests and exams.

This ‘marks focused’ approach of everyone involved, disregards many issues and problems that are deeply embedded and are interconnected with each other. Consequently children bear the brunt of these shortcomings. They are the victims of the faulty system.

The most important issues that need to be taken care of urgently are-

·        The problem of bilingualism ….the constant struggle of the children to cope with a foreign language along with the course material needs to be dealt with.

·        Teachers are grossly underpaid, untrained and inadequately qualified. Where is the motivation for teachers to do their job with honesty?

·        The suitability of a person as teacher is never questioned. Do they really have the aptitude or interest in teaching? 

Obviously, if these deep rooted problems are so blatantly ignored, it certainly puts a question mark on the quality of teaching in schools.

        We need to reflect and ask ourselves ……are we in a position to assess the children? Are we giving them a fair chance to develop their full potential, the favorable conditions to exhibit their abilities?

        It has to be accepted that exams cannot be completely done away with – at least in the present scenario. In fact they do have their usefulness and purpose if taken in the right perspective.

·        Tests and examinations should be utilized by teachers to evaluate their own teaching. It tells them whether they have succeeded in their job. Have the children grasped the concepts and understood whatever is taught? Which areas need to be reinforced? Which topics should be revised etc.?

·        Examinations help in mapping the progress of a child. The amount of improvement in the child can be seen through the comparison of his previous performance with the latter one.

·        It needs to be reiterated that each child is a different individual with different levels of intelligence, different family backgrounds and different life experiences. Hence it is absolutely wrong to compare one child’s performance to the other.

·        We need to encourage children to try their best, put in efforts and show consistent improvement.

·        In pursuing higher studies, children have to face the outside world and deal with tremendous competition. School examinations should prepare them for all this. Examinations also teach children to deal with failure. This can only happen when parents, teachers and children do not take success or failure in one examination as the be all and end all !

·        Examinations provide one an opportunity to reflect o one’s weaker areas and how to strengthen them.

What do examinations assess after all? In most cases they are a measure of the rote learning skills of a child testing their memorization capacity. Can learning acquired within the four walls of a classroom be called complete education? Is knowledge gained merely from text books true knowledge? Examinations are obviously restricted to test this kind of learning. Can we then let ourselves believe that when our child performs well in a test he/she has been well educated? Aren’t we fooling ourselves by this approach?

 When the goal of teaching shifts from imparting knowledge to just attaining a high score the teaching – learning process is definitely hampered. The pressure associated with examination kills the joy of learning. It becomes a burden for the child. Isn’t learning an end in itself rather than a means to an end (to get a high score)?

In this exam - based schooling where is the scope to nurture the children into creative, imaginative and free persons? Do we provide them room to develop their own individual selves?

        Why exams in India are given the stature of a life crisis, is beyond logical explanation. It is like a mass neurosis from which the whole country suffers!!!! This abnormally anxious and obsessive attitude plays havoc with the lives of the nation’s youth.

        The need of the hour is to change our mind-set, our way of thinking towards the giving and taking of examinations and tests. Examinations should be treated as a useful tool but with their own limitations.

They are not a foolproof method and assess the child in a very limited manner. How we as parents, teachers and students perceive them will determine whether they are a boon or a curse.

        Research has time and again proven that the so called ‘good percentage’ can never ever ensure life success, success in a job or business or whatever career one pursues. It has to be accepted that complete education cannot be restricted to the classroom. There is much to learn in the real world, beyond the pages of text books.

        Real education is relevant, enjoyable; activity oriented and emphasizes hands-on-experience, wherein the natural curiosity and inquisitiveness of the child is not stifled. Hence, it inculcates a love for learning and knowing about things around them. School is also the place where children learn (essentially through examples set by teachers) human values which help them become better people.

        Education is all about becoming politically, socially, emotionally and morally aware adults. Eventually it benefits oneself, the society and humankind as a whole. Schooling that fails to do so………fails to educate!!!

(An article for the school magazine written in 2007.)