The class struggle in India is about to get a little easier: students in Class X will not have to take board exams but will be subject to a grading system based on term papers, quizzes, group discussions and other activities. This long-awaited measure will liberate these students from the cruel tyranny of the dreaded board exams, which exact a frightful toll of panic and despair, leading in extreme cases to suicide.
The HRD ministry deserves two cheers for this. The third cheer must remain reserved until further reform of our oppressively antiquated educational system, which still remains obsessed with 'marksism': academic success or failure is determined by the number of marks a student gets for spewing out undigested information which has been learnt by rote, and which will be forgotten as soon as the results are out, if not sooner.
While the new measure will, it is hoped, free Class X students from despotic 'marksism' and inculcate in them a sense of inquiry which is the foundation of all true education it only defers the ordeal of the exams they will eventually have to face to pass out of school. Why not carry the grading system right through Class XII?
A more serious shortcoming of the new system is that it addresses only one side of a multifaceted problem: it seeks to grade only students, and not those who teach them or those who monitor and supervise their schoolwork, like parents. Why is it that only students must pass tests? Or, as will now be the case for Class X students, learn to make the grade? What about teachers? Isn't it equally important that they too should be regularly tested to see if they pass muster?
Having got their qualifying degrees by the same system of 'marksism' that they will perpetuate throughout their professional careers the great majority of teachers don't trouble themselves with keeping abreast in this ever-changing world with the latest developments in their supposed expertise, be it in science subjects or the humanities. In short, the moment they start teaching, they stop learning. Which is a contradiction in terms. Or ought to be. For learning and teaching are two sides of the same two-way street. Even as they test, or grade, those whom they teach, teachers should also be regularly tested, or graded, in a process which includes input from their students. (On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your teacher on the following counts: Grasp of Subject Matter, Clarity, Communication Skills, etc.)
But if teachers are to make the grade, it has to be made worth their while. Barring a handful of so-called 'elitist' institutions whose faculty members are reasonably well paid, most schoolteachers in India receive a derogatory pittance by way of salary, with government schoolteachers probably at the bottom of the heap. (So where does that 3 per cent education cess that is added onto your tax go? Don't ask.)
Indian schoolteachers' salaries are so poor, for the most part, that teachers have been described as the white-collar 'shudras' of the country. How do we upgrade our teachers who supposedly are the moulders and shapers of young minds, who in turn will shape the future of the country not just economically, but also socially?
Should not just schools, but also individual teachers, be graded by a star system awarded by an autonomous body comprising eminent educationists the way hotels and restaurants are rated?
If we really want our schoolchildren to make the grade in all senses of that term then we have to ensure that their teachers are sufficiently motivated to themselves make the grade. And in order to do that, we as a society parents, taxpayers, policymakers also have to make the grade in the common project of redefining the content and purpose of education. What is the purpose of education? Is there any purpose beyond the obvious one of getting a job and making money? How our school kids make the grade will depend on how we make the grade in answering that question.
secondopinion@timesgroup.com
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/
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Sep 19, 2003
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 18: Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi today reversed the decision of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) to allow students to evaluate their teachers.Though some private schools do allow such internal assessments, this was the first time that such a measure was being introduced in a nationwide network like the Kendriya Vidyalaya system.
Joshi’s decision evoked a positive response from the large constituency of teachers but some of them like Arjun Dev, formerly with the NCERT, felt that such a system would have to be incorporated in the long run. However, he added that emphasis given to such assessment should not result in teachers being penalised in any way.
