NO MORE LEARNING BY ROTE

Winds of change are blowing in India's education sector. Close on the heels of the CBSE introducing the continuous evaluation system in schools, it is now the turn of Karnataka's Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) to adopt a comprehensive and continuous evaluation system. The PU Board (Karnataka state level 10+2 Board) intends to scrap the I PU (10+1) examination from the 2012-13 academic session. A formal communication to this effect will soon be sent to all affiliated colleges.

 

The move is likely to affect more than 5 lakh students enrolled in the first year of various PU Board colleges across the state. V. Rashmi, Director of the Pre –University Education, says that the decision has been taken to “improve quality” across colleges. Notably the number of students failing in successive batches of PU Board is on the rise. In 2008-09, out of 5, 34,430 students who attended I PUC classes, just about 4,28,580 managed to graduate to next year. So the system lost 1, 05,850 students during the academic year. In 2009-10, the number of students lost was 1.06 lakh. “Our survey has revealed that nearly 4 lakh students fail or leave education in the span of two years of PU. In the first year, nearly 1.7 lakh students drop out and the II PU year sees the exit of another 3 lakh students. This is despite the 47% pass percentage of PU colleges’,” points out V. Rashmi, explaining the Karnataka PU Board’s rationale for implementing continuous learning.

 

In the present system, I PUC students get two chances to clear the year. Those failing the supplementary exams are not allowed to attend regular classes and have to give II PUC (10+2) exams as private candidates. The new system doing away with pass or fail grades in the first year. Students will be instead given monthly class tests, and mid-term tests. Importantly, all students will carry their performance to second year and none will not be detained.

 

A senior DPUE official told TSI that the decision is also an effort towards discouraging private enrollments in Universities by those who have failed in the first year. “A large number of students fail in the I PUC (10+1) exam. But instead of making another attempt to clear the paper, they use private enrollment as an indirect route for appearing in the second year exams directly,” he says. This, he says, leaves very few seats for genuine students for whom the private enrollments system was put in place in the first place viz. students who discontinued studies after SSLC or class 10 and want to come back to education.

 

Here’s to replacing the traditional exam-evaluation system which encourages learning by rote at the cost of real learning