The Telegraph reports for the past two days have left me musing over a couple of thoughts, that I’d like to share. In this context the article today on ‘Open-Book Tests’ is something over which I’ve thought for some time in the past. Even I’ve written one post here on our education system of the country – this one. The Telegraph article related to this topic of introducing open-book examination system in CBSE Schools is quoted below:
New Delhi, June 6: The Central Board of Secondary Education is planning to start open-book board exams for Classes X and XII from 2013.The system, used in countries such as the US, UK and Canada, follows an analytical question pattern that assesses students’ understanding of a subject than their memory. Candidates are allowed to take textbooks into exam halls but such questions are set to which direct answers will not be found in them.The CBSE had set up an exam reforms committee under Vineet Joshi to suggest changes that would discourage memorising and reproduction of texts in exams. The panel suggested that situation-based questions could be set that would make students think, analyse and apply their knowledge to arrive at an answer.A committee member told The Telegraph: “(At present) questions in subjects other than math mainly test the candidate’s ability to memorise. The committee felt that questions like who, when, what or why assess textual knowledge than intellect.“(Under the new system) subject matter would be put into a context and the students may be asked to make an analysis.”An economics examinee, for instance, could be presented a case about the country’s economic condition and asked to analyse it and suggest possible measures for improvement.“The idea is that a student should not be able to find any direct answer anywhere. The board will inform the students in advance about the specific paragraph from where a question may be set,” the member said.“But the committee has said that students will not be allowed to take books to the exam hall.”This system is almost similar to the open-book exam system being followed by the Bar Council of India to issue practising licences to aspiring lawyers. These candidates are, however, allowed to take textbooks to exam halls.Educationist Vinod Raina said such reforms should be introduced only after making required changes in the teaching/learning system.“This is a sound exam system…. But to have such a system, students and teachers need to be prepared. The teaching/learning system must be in tune with the proposed exam system,” he said.“If the question pattern is changed without adequate preparation and proper sensitisation, there will be a huge problem.”
I think this is something too much to be expected given the current scenario of our country’s education policy. The many reasons why I feel so is that subjects like History, Geography and Economics (given the Economics we study at our secondary level) need some thoughts as to how exactly can we have an open-book-system conducted examination in them. Secondly, I guess we need to reform our system step-by-step. What I mean is the steps I highlighted in my last post mentioned above should have been thought about as the primary steps. Inculcating a huge gap in the form of jumping abruptly from a cramming-exam to an open-book one is difficult, at times it may become pretty absurd. In this context I totally agree with Educationist Vinod Raina.
Secondly I disagree on my part with the committee member’s view of Maths being the only subject to test the analytic ability of a student. At least, me being from ICSE background, I can see the science subject Physics followed by the language subjects like English and Bengali should be added to the list.
Now a change in topic:
Latest article of The Telegraph on the circus of the IPL looked intensely relieving and satisfying to me! I’ve again written enough on this tamasha of the IPL, and what got me was the way the whole of Calcutta flooded Eden Gardens to “receive” KKR payers and franchise owners, and above all, the Chief Minister and Governor were no exceptions either! Let me not really comment on our CM being there at the Eden – I’m in no mood to turn out to another Ambikesh Mahapatra. Does this imply that we – Calcuttians are cricket-fanatics? Are we crazy about cricket? Do we really love cricket so much, that so many people can afford to ‘waste’ away a full working day on celebrating KKR’s victory?
I’m afraid the answer is ‘NO’. We are not. We are not crazy about anything – ranging from cricket to knowledge to books to films, to marks. The concept of Huchuk is something that really fits well enough to the theme. The reason why I feel Calcuttians are not ‘crazy’ about cricket is simple if one glances at the Ranji Trophy scenario here. Vacant grounds – not a single audience! That’s how crazy we really are about cricket. Our mindset – 1) We MUST get a glimpse of high profile people if we get the opportunity to – else our life is ruined to ashes. (That explains part of why so many fanatics turned out to the Eden) 2) We MUST NOT LET any opportunity to waste away a working day go by – it’s there for the taking.
I’ve purposely let out the contents of public debate of whether it was another publicity move by our CM, or whether it was a tactical move to shy away from the more serious issues harassing Bengal – or was it something to do with other feelings on the ground of politics.
By the way, when Bengal won the Vijay Hazare Trophy after two decades last year – where were our CM and government officials? Where were the gold chains, where was the fanatic craze – where was the reception? This is something that I’d love to ask our ‘Cricket-fans of Kolkata’.