Page 252 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes 21.4 Improvement in Examination System

Radhakrishnan Commission (1948-49) gave highest priority to the improvement of examinations
in the field of higher education. It stated in clear words — If we have to give only one suggestion
as regards improvement in higher education, it would be improvement of the examination. The
commission was of the opinion that all other improvements would come by of their own if the
examination system is improved. It gave several suggestions for the improvement in university
examinations. After this, the Mudaliar Commission (1952-53) recommended for improvement of
the public examinations being administered at the secondary level.
The Kothari Commission (1964-66) also considered this problem in depth. The National Educational
Policy, 1968 and the National Education Policy, 1986 too have emphasised improvement in
examinations. In the meantime, various Provincial Secondary Education Boards, National Council
of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), University Grants Commission (UGC) and various
committees under various university have given suggestion for the improvement of examinations.
Some of the recommendations have also brought into force.

Some recommendations have proved to be very effective; such as administration of
three types of examinations — oral, written and practical, use of all the three types of
written examinations — essay type, short answer type and objective type, carefulness in
the construction of examination papers, honesty in the administration of examinations,
declaring the use of unfair means in examinations as legal offence, and centralised
evaluation of answer-books.

On the other hand, some experiments have failed as well, such as, semester system, internal and
continuous evaluation, question bank, book-examination system and grade system. However,
some scholars still vote for them, so it is necessary to discuss them here.

In 1958, the Central Examination Unit of the Union Ministry of Education considered
the merits and demerits of the public examinations being held at secondary level
and gave several suggestions for their improvement.

21.5 Semester System

Generally, a session of a class in our country is of one year duration and the examination is
conducted at its end. Some universities divide the session into two sessions of six months each,
and conduct the examinations at the end of each six months session. Thus, a three-year degree
course is divided into six equal sessions, and two-year postgraduate course is divided into four
sessions. Such a system is called semester system. In this system, a student failing in one subject
in one semester is not declared to be failed, rather is admitted to the next semester and is given
an opportunity.

21.6 Merits of Semester System

This system has proved effective to some degrees in the field of higher education. This system
has the following merits :
(1) The chief merit of this system is that no student (examinee) is declared to be failed in it. A
whole year is not lost for the failure candidate to appear again at the examination, and there

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