The Hindu : Kerala News : There should not be any compromise on the quality of education

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Sunday, Jun 08, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala

There should not be any compromise on the quality of education

The State government is understood to be considering the removal of the minimum pass mark stipulation for each subject for annual promotion from Classes I to X as the system stands in the way of otherwise bright students who cannot make the grade in some subjects however hard they tried. How do students, teachers and parents look at this move? Our readers respond:

A thoughtless move

On this year’s school admission day, I heard a teacher speaking on All India Radio about the success of her school in the SSLC examinations. The school which had registered a 97 percent pass last year, achieved a cent per cent victory in 2008. Elaborating on her teaching strategies, the teacher said as most of the Class X students did not know the alphabets, she started with the alphabet. The fact that even after nine plus years of school education, the students do not even know the alphabet seems quite strange. What are those teachers, taking classes up to Class IX, doing in schools when Minister for Education speaks volumes on the quality improvement in government schools? It is all good to offer payasam and free text books to children. At the same time, there should be a little effort to teach them at least the alphabet in lower classes. The move to abandon the term examinations will be counter-productive as it gives the teachers an excuse not to finish the lessons. Also, the decision to abolish minimum marks for subjects is thoughtless. The students should at least learn to make simple calculations or write his/her name correctly. The resolution to take away exam-related anxieties off the minds of students would create greater anxieties for them in the future.

K.A. Solaman

S L Puram

No compromise

Raising the pass percentage is not a right measure. Remove the system of pass and fail. Whatever is the system to assess students, be it marks or grade, there should be no compromise on the valuation procedure. Due to various factors students are not getting proper education now. The environment in which they grow up, the dearth of experienced teachers or the students’ lack of interest in some particular subjects might be the contributing factors. Some students are good in Mathematics and Physics. They get more marks in those subjects than others. Some others are interested in languages. When a student tries to make progress in the subjects in which he/she is weak, the other subjects suffer, resulting in an overall poor performance. The doors of further studies should not be shut up on such students. Allow them to concentrate on the subjects of their interest and let them score good marks in them. We need specialised manpower in all sectors.

Berkwins C.W.

Kuriachira

Shocking

The move to remove minimum mark stipulation for promotion in Classes I-X is appalling. Already students don’t have adequate knowledge in many of the subjects and languages taught. What the government should do is:- 1) Keep weekly tests for those portions taught during the week. 2) Keep monthly tests for the whole month’s portions. 3) Conduct viva-voce at the end of the year. Our aim should be to impart knowledge to posterity and not award unheard of marks and create complacency among the students. I think it’s high time that the government kept its hands off the educational field.

George Matthai

Kochi

Promote all

Why not we promote all the students of Classes I to X, without taking into account their academic performance? There is nothing wrong in promoting them, as they are only children. Entrance tests, interviews, testing them in between classes etc. should be avoided, as all students like to be promoted to the next class, even if they have not studied. When they reach Class X, the Education Department and school authorities may take serious analysis of their studies. Class tests, half yearly tests and final examination etc will improve their studies and prepare them for final exam. We suggest promoting all students from LKG to Class X, if they are present in the class, at least 90% of days.

P. Sankaranarayanan

Petta

Exams are important

If examinations have got any purpose, they should not be done away with. Selection to administrative services and professional courses is based on written examinations. Probably this explains the importance of examinations. It is mentioned that students ‘otherwise bright’ fail to get minimum marks in some subjects however hard they may try. How bright they are remains a question. In ordinary parlance, a bright student gets high marks in all subjects. If one does not, one cannot be called a bright student.

Up to the school final level, education is broad-based. Whereas one should be an expert in one’s profession, one should have an acceptable level of general awareness or one will be like the proverbial frog in the well. That is the very purpose of broad-based education.

Examinations are meant to assess the progress made by the students in their studies. If the conventional examination is as hateful as to be thrown into the Arabian Sea lock, stock and barrel, let us think of some other ways of assessing the students. Continuous assessment, of course, is a sensible alternative, but that again boils down to examinations in practice.

An oft-repeated criticism levelled against conventional examinations is that they are merely memory tests. Memory also counts. It is from memory that we bring out facts and figures. Memory is the storehouse of accumulated knowledge. I fail to understand what is wrong with memory tests!

Being bright in some subjects is not an excuse to excuse bright students from other subjects. McCauley’s system has been working well all these years. Let the sleeping dogs lie. It is not wise to create problems to solve them.

P.V. Divakaran

Avittathur

Strong base necessary

We have already seen the fiasco created in the case of SSLC examination. Such a measure of non-fulfilment of educational standard is now going to be applied to the lower classes as well. Such a lopsided educational reform will mean the degradation of whatever standards we have achieved in education sector. It is next to impossible to have cent per cent success in all classes from Class I to X with complete disregard to minimum pass mark in any subjectThe subjects taught in the primary and secondary classes are the foundation on which higher education is built up. If the foundation itself is weak and hollow, how can anyone build any structure on it?

The future generations will never forgive such ‘Utopian’ reforms which will shatter the educational standards of the State. No one will recognise the secondary school leaving certificates issued here. Who has given permission to play with the future of the ‘citizens of tomorrow’? Such foolish ideas should be nipped in the bud itself. So many scholars from the state have won international fame and their contribution to build up admirable standards in the field of education should not be sacrificed by the whimsical ideas of the so called ‘educational reformist’.

Capt. O.B.Nair

Poonithura

Attendance the criteria

Considering the SSLC result of this year, I think, it is better to give full marks to students of Classes I to X in the State. Only those who have the minimum-prescribed attendance should be given a chance for promotion to the next class. Giving moderation is not a good practice. Instead, let them move on to the next class, if they are present in the class always.

The parents, teachers and students all are interested in the students getting promoted to the next class, whether they have studied well or not. In such a circumstance, why should they not be promoted? Let them get a chance till Class X. After that, the criteria for Class XI pass should be more than 50% and Class XII, it should be 40%.

S.N. Thiruvazhiode

Gandhi Square

Reward brilliance

It is rather surprising that there indeed is a minimum mark stipulation for passing each paper, given the earlier practice of de facto ‘total promotion’. Over three decades ago, SSLC exams were split in two groups, with only a minimum total required in each group to pass the whole examination. The even more liberal practice of total promotion in lower classes precedes that event, and it was normal to allow students pass through the classes unhindered, up to IX. At that stage, many schools used to detain ‘failure-prone’ students, hoping to improve the schools’ SSLC results. That having been the policy, with which many of our current middle-aged ministers and bureaucrats should be familiar, the proposal is hardly novel, and wholeheartedly welcome! Yet, a fairer alternative is to ask enough exam questions answerable with commonsense and no in-depth knowledge about the topics concerned; that way, smartness and brilliance will not go unrewarded.

Devraj Sambasivan

Alappuzha

Deplorable move

What blunder is the government proposing to do, by promoting all students till Class X, without adhering to the pass mark criteria or attendance? It was another blunder the Education Minister did by promoting more than 92% of students for SSLC, by giving moderation generously. From LKG to Class XII, there should be some qualifications, merits, and some criteria for promotion to the next grade. In some schools, even for admission to kinder garten, there are tests and interviews. There is nothing wrong in them because they should have the required standard for the class.

The present system is not bad and what is proposed is wrong.

Neelandon Kuruvattoor

Ottappalam

A positive change

Academia is a platform that tests a child’s grasping power more than analytical power. Each human is talented in some field or the other. No one can judge a child’s brilliance just by his/her performance in the academics. Anyone can mug up the theory, by heart the formulas, get a good score and get titled the most {lsquo}brainy student’. It’s not all that difficult. It’s a good thing that at least the government has realised that a student’s brilliance is not limited to the marks obtained in the examinations. The present system is just confined to the school level performance. The removal of minimum marks in all subjects and introduction of new methods/norms in measuring the aptitude of the students for promotion would be ideal. No doubt, this is going to be a challenge for the planners. And teachers should realise that there are other fields than studies for the children to excel.

Shruthi Binoy K.

Kochi

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