In an attempt to reform the present examination system, GU Vice-Chancellor has announced that questions in exams will be asked only from the question bank
Students of Gujarat University are in for a treat. In an attempt to reform the current examination system by thinking from a students' perspective, Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor announced on Thursday that surprise questions will not be asked in exams from now on. Questions in the examination will only be asked from the question bank available with the students.
The thought that went behind this announcement is that students should not be assessed only based on examinations, said Himanshu Pandya, Vice-Chancellor, GU. "Time has come to evaluate and evolve ourselves in terms of assessment. We need to change the way we evaluate our students. Professors have a habit of setting the toughest paper so that students find it difficult to ace the tests. We need to change our approach and all this is happening as we have limited techniques of assessment."
Pandya was speaking at a day-long state-level seminar on 'Quality Improvement in Higher Education', chaired by State Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama. Officials from the education department along with vice-chancellors and principals of various universities and colleges in the state attended it.
Claiming the present system to be faulty, Pandya said the problem is that we only focus on whether a student has passed or failed, which often frustrates and humiliates the students. Due to this approach, the overall ability of students never gets evaluated. He said, "We are reforming examinations; the syllabus will now be set up by the university. Question papers will be set up by the Board of Studies but the exams will be conducted by colleges. There will be no surprise or trauma in exams from now onward. All questions will be asked from the question bank."
The university is also hinting at increasing the internal evaluation weightage. This year, the same has been increased by 10 per cent (from 30per cent it has increased to 40 per cent), whereas summative weightage will be 60 per cent. While answer scripts and mark-sheets will be evaluated by the colleges, the degrees will be awarded by the University."
Research cell to design curriculum should be set up in every university:
Suggesting the education department to set up a research cell in every university, Dr Subhash Brambhatt, Principal HK Arts College, said, "There is a strong need for a research cell that would design the curriculum. The cell should essentially focus on market research, survey, feedback from students and industry and eventually design the curriculum. Our curriculum is not relevant, which is why every company, after recruiting students, sends them for a training."
Citing the example of the Oxford University, he said, "The Oxford University has a team of 70 people who only work on designing their curriculum. They do market research, hold meetings with different stakeholders, understand demand and accordingly train students to make them industry ready. We should use retired academicians in such committees or academic NGOs."
GU'S SUGGESTIONS:
- Less classroom time, more field work
- Semester break to students should be encouraged
- Credits for the same included in marksheet
- Lateral entry, exit should be allowed
- Academic credit transfer
- No surprise questions in exams
- Increase internal evaluation weightage
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