Prabhumam’s Phardi

Misleading Marks

August 7th, 2006

I read somewhere that if you copy from one source it is plagiarism. However, if you copy from several sources it is research. Here is some research done by Purush for an elocution competition on “Indian educational system is marks oriented.” He presented this before an assembly of high school students on 15 September 2001. Are these rambling statements relevant today? Read and comment:

It is said that we Indians cherish learning. This is misleading. To us learning means passing exams that lead to a well paid job. Learning for its own sake is considered a luxury, a financial waste.

This lopsided view of education has percolated into the Indian educational system. After all schools and universities reflect the basic values of a society.

The result of this has been the excessive emphasis on marks secured in school and university exams and entrance tests.

The fact that high marks obtained in exams guarantee a professional position has discouraged creative and critical thinking. So much so, we have now come to believe that correct answers always exist and are found in books or from authorities - teachers, parents, political leaders. Questioning authority, especially in public, is considered disrespectful.

Classrooms which should provide an environment for developing students’ critical thinking skills, have become factories producing people who make efficient and obedient workers who let their bosses do the thinking for them. They are so overstressed and overtested that they are ill-equipped for the Information Age, where thinking and creativity hold a premium.

Students should be trained to ask questions, make predictions and use evidence to draw conclusions. If reasoning skills are developed at the earliest ages, students become far more able learners and thinkers.

No matter how proficient a student is at memorisation and thus obtaining high marks, he or she will never be able to compete even with an outdated computer.

The world is progressing day by day and it takes more than memorisation to make it in the modern world. Isn’t this one of the reasons why parents are sending their children abroad even for undergraduate studies.

Let me conclude by saying that rituals dominated life and rote memorisation and ability to pass official exams were all it took to succeed. A nation’s economic prosperity is intimately tied to its stock of human capital. Its human capital depends on the quality of its educational system. Schools have quietly become an extension of economic policy. And it’s time we reform the marks oriented examination system.

Entry Filed under: Purush