Few days back I read on the newspaper that the Govt. of West Bengal wanted to reduce “study-pressure” on school students and hence have come up with an alternative to exams – the alternative is “Surprise Tests”. While doing a Google search on whether surprise tests will be beneficial or not, I came across a little paradox about this topic – you may read it here.
This is a Food for thought topic – which means that there is no strict decision coming up right now on to whether the concept of “Surprise Tests” should be or should not be applied. There are bright and dark sides for it, just like any other general thing…
The Government of West Bengal had been thinking for quite some time about introducing Surprise Tests instead of scheduled and routine exams. They reason it out as that will decrease stress on the students in the sense that scheduling a test in advance makes them tensed/worried/anxious from beforehand, and if surprise tests are introduced then the pupils will be tested “on the spot” i.e sur place . The students will be relieved of the stress in preparing for days “for an exam”. Also this will clarify whether students study their daily course or not. This system will thus segregate the really studious ones from the students who study only for exams.
Some days back, a teacher wrote in Anandabazaar Patrika (A Bengali Daily) about this topic where she pointed out that introducing the concept of surprise exams is going to make things worse for students who remain very concerned about marks throughout their terms. Her reasoning was simple – in that case the students will be under stress very single day in school, which is far-worse than the scenario that the West Bengal Govt. is expecting…Additionally what if a student suddenly misses class on a surprise-test day?
I don’t know whether the West Bengal Govt. really wants to reduce stress or not, because their concept of ‘ segregate the really studious ones from the students who study only for exams‘ looks crap to me. I can’t blame anyone for this, but the system of education is not really entitled to do this segregation. For Example, let’s take care of the History subject…. I must say it is one of the most useful subjects of all. We are taught History, so that we learn from History. But our system forces us to cram History than literally taking lessons from them, and the “studious students” of our society unfortunately enough, are the ones who can cram the most, the cramming ability is given far more importance than anything else in our schools! Understanding and cramming are two different aspects altogether, our exams test the former and forget the latter in most subjects! Change that first, examination patterns can be played with much latter. Good Luck!