Page 251 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Unit 21 : Semester System vs Annual System

21.1 Annual System of Examination Notes

In annual system of examination the relevant, institution has to prepare questions papers, arrange
for its marking and conducting examination only once a year. The students prepare themselves
for the annual examination and their tension is relieved in a single chance but the problem is that
as compared to semester system they have to make through study of the whole course included
in their syllabus.

21.2 Merits of Annual Examination

The scholars who advocate internal and continuous evaluation, anticipate the following merits.
(1) The students shall remain regular in their studies in the internal and continuous evaluation,
and they will emphasis on understanding in place of learning by rote.
(2) The teachers will correctly evaluate the student’s achievements in internal and continuous
evaluation, they will be able to know about their progress and on that basis of it they will
be able to guide them properly.
(3) Chance factor will be eradicated in the internal and continuous evaluation, only those
students will score better who will be eligible for it.
(4) The results of internal and continuous evaluation will be reliable.

21.3 Demerits of Annual Examination

Some universities in our country have adopted this system, but without any benefit, rather the
following demerits took place. We can call them the demerits of the system.
(1) This system can be applied only where the ratio of teacher-student is less.
(2) In this system, the teachers have ample opportunity for favouritism.
(3) Generally, those students score better in internal and continuous evaluation who can arrange
recommendations for them or may impress the teachers otherwise.
(4) In this system the teachers favour their students and award them more marks than they
deserve. It causes downfall in the standard of education.
Suggestion About Annual Examination System

We have, in the meantime, done several experiments for the improvement in the examinations,
including internal and continuous evaluation. There were no benefits from the application, of
internal and continuous evaluations rather there could be seen misadministration in the field of
education and the downfall in the standard of education. The truth is that there is no alternative
to the public examinations, the only thing required is to improve upon them, to give weightage
to the oral, practical and written examinations, and to give equal weightage to essay type, short
answer type and objective type tests in the written examinations, to declare use of unfair means
as legal offence and to exercise care in the evaluation of answer-books. In the public examinations,
we are in favour of the administration of both types of examinations—oral or practical and
written. We are also in favour of all three types of tests — essay type, short answer type and
objective type. We are also in favour of giving 25% weightage to each of oral or practical, essay-
type, short-answer-type and objective-type examinations. The oral or practical examinations at
secondary level should be fully internal, and at the graduate and post graduate levels should be
conducted with the help of internal and external examiners both. It would not be justified to give
more than 25% weightage to internal evaluation.

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