EXAMINATION SYSTEM AND EVALUATION PROCESS-THE PROBLEMS AND ITS SOLUTION

Introduction
Education as a planned undertaking, at a personal level on a small scale or institutional level on a large scale, aims at
making student capable of becoming active, responsible, productive, and caring members of society. They are made
be acquainted with the various practices of the society by imparting the relevant skills and ideas. Education
encourages the students to analyse and evaluate their experiences, to doubt, to question, to investigate – in other
words, to be inquisitive and to think independently and acquire proficiency.
Every proficiency execution requires the development of core academic subject knowledge and understanding
among all students. It is the task of a teacher to create students who can think critically and communicate effectively
on the basis of core academic subject knowledge. Students must also be taught the essential skills for success in
today’s world, such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration. Within the framework of
core knowledge instruction, the institution(s) combine the entire framework with the necessary support systems—
standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction, professional development and learning environments—students
are more engaged in the learning process and graduate better prepared to thrive in today’s global economy.
Hence examination and evaluation become an integrated and important part of education system even in the 21st
century. The main emphasis is to assess the knowledge gained by a student and motivate him/her to improve upon
it. Instilling confidence amongst students about the assessment system and timely publication of highly accurate
results is essential. This process aims at measuring the degree of knowledge assimilated by the students during a
course of study without bringing excess pressure.
Topic Explanation
Examination and Evaluation System.
The process of examination aims at measuring the ‘degree’ of knowledge incorporated by the students during a
course of study or training imparted to them.
In professional education system like law, special emphasis is given to continuous evaluation of students’
performance during a term or academic session. The students may pass examinations securing good marks with
scanty preparation, mostly done just before the examination and there is no reason to disagree.
Acquiring the best knowledge and not merely scoring good marks must be the goal of the student. The objectives
Examination process is to reflect the true level of knowledge acquired by the students.
Examination:
Examinations are conducted to test the level of the student, what he has acquired during the course he was
admitted into. It is also to see the students’ ability to understand and reproduce the knowledge acquired. Based on
the examination conducted, the exam system is able to stratify the students as per their standard. So that high-
quality students who have attained essential standards of learning are screened out from the rest.1 Students thus
screened can be then trained for acquiring higher knowledge. Those remaining behind are given an opportunity to
improve and are re-examined.
Requirements of outstanding Examination System
The machinery implemented to run Examination System must be ‘determined’ and ‘faultless’ in its process. It should
operate without fear, favour, pressure and prejudice. The functioning of this system must be based on sound
principles, policies, and procedures directed towards the achievement of its goals.
It is more advantageous if the system is administrated by academicians and not by administrative department.
Keeping in mind the need of the hour and demand of circumstances there has to be suppleness and compliance to
the changing needs.
Transparent policies and procedures, manned by persons with appropriate qualifications and qualities like self
discipline, accuracy, secrecy, time consciousness, high degree of integrity with the objectives of the system and
complete understanding of their duties responsibilities will be beneficial to the system. There must be adequate
manpower to handle various functions of the system so that excessive work pressure on existing workforce is
avoided which would otherwise result in error and delay.
Employment of modern computing facilities and software to process enormous data and generation of documents
will make work fast, easy and human independent.
Reforms in Exam System
Indian universities exams must be appropriate for the ‘knowledge society’ of the 21st century. Therefore it has to
encourage students to be innovative and problem-solvers. The exam system today does not serve the needs of social
justice.
The reason according to some thinkers2 is quality of question papers is low, they usually call for rote memorization
and fail to test higher-order skills like reasoning and analysis, let alone lateral thinking, creativity, and judgment, they
are inflexible, based on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ principle, they make no allowance for different types of learners and
learning environments.
Nowadays Exams induce an unwarranted level of anxiety and stress on the students, which add to pervasive
suffering, nervous breakdowns resulting exam induced suicides. Therefore a department of psychological counselors
must encourage students to open up rather than take an extreme step. Many universities lack functional and reliable
system as well as full disclosure and transparency grading and mark/grade reporting as well as college-based
evaluation.
The following suggestions can be considered to improve the exam system:
1. University exams must encourage students to be innovative.
2. Higher-order skills like reasoning and analysis, lateral thinking, creativity, and judgment, must be encouraged.
3. The quality of question papers must be improved.
4. Exams must not induce an unwarranted level of anxiety and stress on the students.
5. Exams must not add to continual suffering, nervous breakdowns.
6. University/ colleges must open departments with psychological counsellors to support students.
7. Universities must be transparent in disclosing grading and mark/grade reporting.
8. College-based evaluation must be encouraged.
Evaluation System.
Continuous evaluation of students’ performance” has become norm of the day. Biggs define evaluation as “The
fundamental principle of constructive alignment is that good teaching systems align teaching method and
assessment to the learning activities stated in the objectives so that all aspects of this system are in accord in
supporting appropriate student learning.”
Tyler (1950) defined evaluation as “a systematic process of determining the extent to which educational objectives
are achieved by pupils”. The evaluation is a standard process, and it excludes the informal, unceremonious or
unrestrained observation of the students. The objectives/goals of education have to be identified in advance.
Without predetermined objectives, it is not possible to judge the progress, growth and development of students.
Evaluation is not always the end of a course.
Evaluation plays a very important role in educational process. Evaluation is used to determine the extent to which
educational objectives have been achieved after the teaching learning process. The evaluation system maintains its
standards along with the progress of education. Evaluation has been an integral part of any ‘teaching and learning’
environment.
When an Evaluation in a college or university level is carried out one has to consider the following questions
because, the quality of any educational system is directly linked with the quality of evaluation;
 Who is the evaluation for?
 Why are you carrying out the evaluation?
 What will your evaluation do?
 What kind of information do you want to collect?
 What do you plan to do with the information once collected?
In fact, evaluation plays a crucial role in making a decision as to what the learners
learn and what the teachers teach.
Merits of Evaluation System:
Evaluation is important because only through evaluation a teacher can judge the growth and development of
students, as well as the effectiveness of her/ his own teaching in the class. “Teaching for successful learning cannot
occur without high quality evaluation”.
Thus, being continuous process evaluation serves a number of purposes in education, some of the well known
reasons are:
1. We come to know whether a student has developed a certain ‘ability’ stated in the educational objectives or not.
2. We also know the progress of students during the course of teaching and learning.
3. We are able to grade, rank, classify, compare and promote the students.
4. It is also used for certifying the completion of a course (by giving certificates, diploma, or Degree)
5. Helps us in selection of students for admission or scholarship, and
6. Helps in predicting their future success in different endeavours.
However these are the rationale of ‘end-of-the-term’ evaluation, the basic purpose of evaluation has been to bring
about quality improvement in education which evaluation does by providing feedback regarding pupil learning,
classroom teaching, suitableness of curriculum and course contents etc. It also helps bring about all round
development of the students’ personality when it is used for developing their non-cognitive capacities. Evaluation
can also promote the accountability of the teachers. The students’ results can tell whether the poor performance of
the students is due to poor teaching or defective methodology etc.
Thus evaluation can work as an important instrument for improvement in teaching. Professional development of the
teachers is almost directly related to the feedback through evaluation. A teacher earns a reputation on the basis of
the result shown by the pupils whom he/she has taught. If the students do not show desirable learning outcomes,
then he/she may have to think of changing his/her strategies of teaching, improving the instructional material,
updating his/her knowledge or going for a refresher course, thereby exploring new approaches. These steps will
automatically help his/her professional development.
Importance of external and internal assessment system
1. Internal assessment is and includes periodical assessment of students’ learning by their respective subject
teachers in the class. It is to the teachers ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’ however there are difficulties in introducing such
a programme. the Internal assessment includes day-to-day assessment as continuous assessment which is an
integral part of teaching also, unit-wise testing of periodical testing or even end of the session or semester testing by
college teachers themselves are all examples of internal assessment.
2. Internal assessment as a device to compensate for the loss in marks obtained in external assessment. However
there is fear of biased teacher markings.
3. Regular, continuous and inclusive assessment covering assessment of even non-cognitive learning outcomes, must
be carried out by a college teacher himself/herself as it improves the legitimacy of assessment of students.
However, such an attempt should be undertaken with careful planning and a thorough preparation of teachers as
the have to play a dual role as guide and examiner.
4. Evaluation should be a fundamental and essential part of teaching, internal assessment must be a regular feature
of the programme of the colleges besides lectures and projects.
5. The concerned authority should develop concurrence design or basic framework of internal assessment for use in
all colleges. The design must be with prerequisite for some flexibility in different subjects.
6. If a degree of uniformity is ensured in the assessment policy of the colleges, and the teachers in the colleges have
clear understanding of what is really expected of them it will be perfectly workable programme.
7. It is necessary that the principals of colleges as well as representative groups of teachers and students must be
involved in framing the policy to achieve academic excellence.
8. Assessment should not be limited only to achievement in the curricular subjects, but also for co-scholastic aspects
like personal social qualities, interests, attitudes, values, etc.