Back to: Measurement and Evaluation in Education B.ed Notes, M.A Notes, IGNOU Notes and Graduation Notes

Merits and Demerits of Present System of Examination in India

There are many aspects of the Indian educational system that, at first appearance, appear to be flawed. The first issue is that not every child in India has access to schooling. In terms of things like quality and amenities, there is also the widening disparity between government-owned institutions and private ones. One matter, though, has eluded the attention of all parties involved—the general public, the authorities, the professors, and maybe even the students—and that is India’s test system.

Advantages of Present Education System in India in Points

Exams now have a significant amount of weight in the Indian educational system. Exams are essential for students, and there is no getting around it. There is currently no other machine on the horizon to evaluate the pupils’ qualities impartially.

Not all students are always eager types to pay attention to their classes and thoroughly prepare for them to gain fully from them. They are forced in this way by the examination system.
The examinees in the public examination are unfamiliar with the examiners. Examiners cannot be biassed in the course of their work reviewing the scripts, and exams allow for an open evaluation of the student’s abilities.
The examination’s greatest gift to a student is that it instils in him a passion for healthy competition. Without this spirit, a student would find it difficult to succeed in life.

A mediocre student may have a chance to perform better on the current test system than a very deserving one.

Demerits of Present Education System in India in Points

The way exams are administered is one of the main issues with the Indian educational system as it stands right now. The exam process has remained the same throughout the years: students reported to the exam room, took the test quickly, were instructed to do their best on the questions they were presented with, and then they awaited the results. It has frequently been seen that students who had been studying all year experienced exam-day nervousness or other issues and performed poorly, as opposed to those who had questions they were familiar with and performed well overall.
The main issue is that there is just too much chance involved in this situation; anything might happen, which could worry even the finest kids. These days, new procedures like midterm or semester exams and unit assessments are being established to address this issue. All of them are preferable because they provide kids with a more flexible schedule that enables them to pursue their primary talents, such as athletics and extracurricular activities like music or sketching. The main issue with this situation is that it pushes students to study for grades and retain information for a limited period only to lose it by the time the next test comes around.

The basic goal of education is to inform pupils and assist them in understanding the more valuable aspects of the knowledge being delivered to them. However, given the current emphasis on grades and marks, that seems to have been neglected. Instead of merely memorising information for a few days or months, the system must enable students to genuinely understand what they are being taught and internalise it. Compared to how things are now, it has to be more long-term. To accurately assess the pupils’ skills, it must also be practical.
A project-based or assignment-based system in which students are assigned work they may do at home and are given enough time to finish them, say a couple of days, could be one solution to this problem. This approach will guarantee that students put quality effort into their academics and remove any justification for failing. The second option would be to extend the major and minor system, which is currently in place at higher levels of school, to lower levels of education, such as the sixth standard.
Instead of forcing children to learn too much information that they might not utilise in the future, it is crucial to prepare them for it. Students transfer to what is known as a high school in India at the end of the sixth standard. At this point, the school can speak with the parents about the topics that their child has done well in, interview both them and the pupils, and advise the subject that they are most likely to flourish in going forward. They must, however, be given enough time to make a wise decision in this regard.

The recommendations could be based on the pupils’ current academic performance. He is free to study the other courses as well, but only as minor ones. Any marks earned in addition to those required to pass the subject will be added to the final grade. By doing this, it will be ensured that the kids appreciate what they are learning and that they are not subjected to excessive pressure to succeed in every topic. Questions about parental and peer pressure might not be present if one adopts a relaxed approach.
Few people are aware that India is among the top nations in the world for student suicide, and given the rapid-fire pace of modern life, things may only grow worse in a few years. Perhaps it is the responsibility of those in positions of authority in India, as well as of parents and teachers, to ensure that such incidents are rare and that the next generation pursues its passions rather than trying to achieve goals that are manifestly beyond their capacity, only to fail and perish in the process.
The current test system and its yardstick fall short of accurately assessing the merit of such a kid. A student with exceptional skill and intelligence cannot be restricted to the small world of his textbooks. His view is further away. On the other hand, a student could have mediocre merit. However, he makes accurate estimates about the likely questions and neatly copies them in the exam. His outcomes might be pretty alluring. The current Indian test system gave rise to this paradox.

An examinee must respond to a fair number of questions under the current method in a short amount of time. He sees no room in his notion or way of thinking to respond. He crams the teachings and solutions from memory as a necessary result. The actual evaluation of merit thus becomes a distant cry.
In a relatively short amount of time, the examiners must look over a lot of scripts. They are also expected to rush through the standard evaluation of the response scripts and not do it justice. In certain cases, the job also reflects the examiners’ feelings under different conditions.