KARACHI, Nov 16: Adviser to the Sindh governor Khan Yousuf Jamal has underscored the need for a major overhaul of the examination system to improve the fast deteriorating standard of education and to tackle the menace of cheating in exams.
He was presiding over a brainstorming session and workshop on ‘Evaluation of examination system at secondary and intermediate levels’ held at the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) on Saturday.
The idea of undertaking such an exercise was proposed by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, who is also the controlling authority of all educational boards of the province.
Chairmen and controllers of examinations of educational boards of the province, senior officers of the education department, office-bearers of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA), schoolteachers’ bodies, retired professors and former directors of schools and colleges attended the meeting.
Mr Jamal told Dawn that similar exercises would be held at Hyderabad and Sukkur within a month and recommendations of all three workshops would be forwarded to the governor.Stressing the need for a campaign against cheating in exams, Mr Jamal said that apart from students, teachers and education officials, town nazims, members of civil society and the media could play an important role to eradicate the menace and could help promote a culture of acquiring knowledge.
He admitted that there was a general perception among the public that the present examination system was fast losing its credibility and hoped that the participants of the workshop would recommend concrete measures aimed at removing factors responsible for tarnishing the image of the examination system.
In this regard, he suggested that motivated retired teachers and professors could be assigned the task of monitoring the process of examination.
He hoped that the recommendations of the workshop would be result-oriented and would have an impact on the system of education.
Coaching centres
About the mushrooming growth of coaching and tuition centres, he said that it was beyond his comprehension why no survey had been carried out to know their exact numbers and the methodology of their teaching.
He said these centres were only preparing students for examinations through so-called guides and notes.
Suspecting that vested interests could be behind the flourishing business of coaching centres, he said that the working of these centres should be monitored.
BIEK Chairman Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai proposed that there should be a TV channel exclusively for the promotion of education.
The adviser to the Sindh governor endorsed the proposal and said that he would recommend the proposal to the governor.
Earlier, participants of the workshop were divided into different groups to formulate their recommendations on ‘Prevalent examination system and needs of its improvement’, ‘Areas of correction and role of stakeholders’, ‘Policy issues’, ‘Legal instruments, if needed’, and ‘Awareness campaign’.
Chairman Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Sukkur, Prof (Dr) Mehboob Ali Shaikh, said that the present examination system was not satisfactory and could be described as the collective failure of all stakeholders which include teachers, the education department, district education officers and parents.
He attributed the cause responsible for the unsatisfactory examination system to lack of protection to invigilation staff, interference of pressure groups and improper working of boards.
The SPLA Karachi chapter’s president, Prof Ather Hussain Mirza, stressed the need for creating awareness among students that by resorting to unfair means they might clear their exams but won’t be able to acquire ‘knowledge’, which is an essential ingredient for leading a successful life.
He underscored the need for making the vigilance system more effective.
Former director of colleges Prof Haroon Rasheed said that it was the responsibility of the government to provide proper security to vigilance staff during an examination. He was, however, critical of the role of teachers’ organisations. He urged them to shun their practice of threatening boycott of examinations on ‘frivolous’ grounds.
A former director of schools, Mrs Mujibunnissa Essani, was of the view that the existing examination system was promoting only ‘rote learning’, hence there was a need to change the system of delivering lectures, covering the A to Z of a subject.
She suggested that since a new pattern of examinations, having objective-type questions and short answers, was being introduced for Class IX and XI annual examinations-2009, teachers should adopt the methodology of having question-answer sessions with students.
Prof Ahmed Zai said that the workshop, organised on the instructions of the Sindh governor, was aimed at re-assessing the examination system at the secondary, intermediate and equivalent levels in the province.
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