The quality of a publication relies mainly on reviews of reviewers and editors. And it does not matter if the journals are of a high or low impact factors. This means that a good journal (high impact factor) can publish low quality papers if the review has not been done properly, and vice versa. So the role of a reviewing board is central to the quality of any publication.
Similarly, the role of an examiner or examination body is central to the quality of degree that one gets from an institution. And similarly the process of review by a poor-quality examination can make poor performing students score well and vice versa. For example students can be asked some basic questions about a subject like structural geology, for instance:
Scenario 1. What is a thrust fault?
Scenario 2. Draw a cross-sectional view of a thrust fault that dips 30 degree to NW?
Even through both the questions are about a thrust fault but the major difference lies in the way examination questions are asked, and this is fundamental in testing of performance of students in understanding of concepts, problems etc. in a subject. The first question can be answered by most of the students with little understanding of the problem, as simple rote learning can help. However, in the second question the understanding is very important, and without that no student can possibly answer it, because it tests the understanding ability, and simple mugging up may not help. It is therefore very important for educators to frame questions in such a way that mere mugging up is not be tested, although it may be required rarely.
Globally, most of the institutes do not have a robust system to check the quality of questions being asked during examinations. Therefore unfortunately a good number of questions are mostly based on memory. This has raised a number of issues related to the merit or grades of students. In such situations, a student with high grades may know very little or nothing of the subject. Thereby not essentially testing the skill of the students rather emphasizing memory based learning. Another major problem is copying/cheating during examination. If questions are simple, and memory based (see Scenario 1 above) there are more chances of copying/cheating. For example the recent news of cheating by top-ranking students of intermediate Board in Bihars Education department in India raises questions about the examination standard. These students were asked some basic questions about their subjects they had scored well in but they couldnt answer. This result was therefore cancelled and it was stated that the exam would be held again. Although such students should not be publicly shamed as was done by most of the media portals by telecasting their interview and demeaning them. This however exposes the fraud in education system that is deeply rooted in Bihar. The concerned government has asked the seven top-scoring Intermediate Board students to be retested. However it is of little use now as there are more chances to find a good number of such cases throughout the country, and it cannot be stopped by the re-examination of a few toppers. Such cases are spread throughout the globe. One of the possible causes could be that the examination questions were simple, and mostly memory-based thus cheating was possible.
Thus to maintain the standard, and quality of education, and to stop cheating examination review boards should be established in all institutes throughout the world. It should be able to check the quality of assessments, and the style of questions etc. so that the most deserving students, and talent emerge from institutes of learning. This will greatly improve the quality of education, and will serve justice to students who find it worthless to just reproduce verbatim definitions than a question which challenges their understanding ability to solve a problem. Such an exercise will greatly improve the quality of education. It will equally demand more work from the teachers so that they can frame questions which are meant to examine the understanding of a subject rather than ask simple and easy questions based on memory.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
