A minister in the Union government (looking after 'human resource development', too) has remarked critically on the habit that school-leaving examination bodies like the CBSE and CISCE have acquired of awarding astronomically high exam. scores to candidates: see this. 100 on 100 in mathematics, maybe, he's said, but in languages and history, too? How is that even possible, what sense does it make?
I have been teaching high-school students since the late 1980s, and I can vouch that this pernicious practice took off around then, but accelerated into cloud-cuckooland only since the early 2000s. The minister, who is 63, reminisces that when he scored 73% overall in his board exams, he was the regional topper, and I, who am 55, scored 'only' 87.5%, something that would be considered pretty pathetic today when tens of thousands routinely score in the 90s! But two things have happened - I know for a fact that those who go on to score in the 90s in the boards rarely got more than 70% in the tests I gave them (and that despite the fact that I have perforce become far more open-fisted with marks than I was 25 years ago), and after a brief euphoria over their 'fantastic achievement' (which serves no greater purpose than fuelling their mothers' preening at kitty parties), they come up against the harsh reality that the few decent colleges have upped the ante so much at admission time that even with 95%-plus scores they are often turned away from the gates, and have to queue up before the ever-mushrooming private colleges, which are eager to sell dubious degrees to everybody for big or small mountains of cash... who is fooling whom, and who is really gaining anything from all this?
The said minister wants the boards to take a good, hard look at the way exam. papers are being marked. Will his request/order be taken up seriously, or given a quiet burial?
2 comments:
Dear Sir,
I have always failed to understand the agenda behind such leniency in grading- does it benefit a few elite schools or help the college make a killing with application fees or the examination boards have some twisted logic behind it?
It was interesting to note at the end of the news article that the president of MCCI laments about colleges not producing employable engineers. Hope the conversation grows and more people take note to bring about changes; but again all of this might end up being wishful thinking.
With regards,
Saikat.
Sir,
I think that is a worldwide trend. We can probably do little about it.
Some education systems still have rigorous programs but that is also fast waning. So, all we can hopefully do is make our lessons more interesting and hope that the students will learn. The grades don't matter but there is another trend. The university entrance systems have started to change. In Japan it will change drastically in 2020.
Best wishes
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