School term test fiasco

Bedgar PERERA

During the past few weeks, there was continuous reporting in the daily press and the electronic media about the total mess that the conduct of term examinations in schools had got into, ultimately leading to a Presidential Committee being appointed to probe the same. This was effected, upon the varied problems, ranging from, wrong questions, wrong spellings, answers being provided along with the question papers, financial malpractices in printing question papers, being highlighted in various fora, from election platforms right up to the Parliament.

In fact, as per newspaper reports, the writer was taken by surprise to note that the responsibility for the term examinations had of late being assigned to the central Education Ministry arising out of the problems that popped up, with the handling of the same by the Provincial level Education authorities, presumably coming under the purview of the Provincial Councils.

The writer was tempted to dot these few lines, to provide his views for appropriate consideration by the relevant authorities, in resolving this issue which has attracted so much attention.

From a layman’s point of view, the writer who went through the mill and benefited from the free education process in this country, feels that a basic exercise like term examinations for school going kids, should ideally be the responsibility of none other than the administration of the respective schools.

When such a basic task is assigned to higher authorities over the school level, apparently for no obvious justifiable reason, unwanted problems, confusion and complications are bound to be encountered, as currently experienced.

In fact, during the past, term tests were the responsibility of the schools and problems of the sort currently being encountered, were not heard of in general.

For sure, I am aware that during my time in school (1950-1964), when there was only one Education Minister (as against six Central Government Ministers in charge of the subject of Education at present according to information from newspapers), class teachers/ teachers of different subjects, set the papers, got them typed, proof-read and ‘cyclostyled’ at the school office, marked the answer-scripts and last but not least also gave end-of term reports to the students to take home, when the schools closed for each vacation.

All this was done without much hassle and as a matter of routine, but with utmost concern and diligence.

With the currently available technology for word processing and copying of scripts, such an approach should be possible, provided the much needed commitment is forthcoming from those in charge and the actual doers of this exercise.

Based on the foregoing, the best alternative for the school term tests would be to assign the function to the schools themselves without complicating matters, perhaps with some suitable guidelines, in order that the central Education/ Ministry Provincial Education authorities could be relieved of the same and thereby devote more time, to deal with relevant policy and other issues of importance, in the sphere of education.

After all, some practices developed over the years in any sphere of activity, like school term tests being the responsibility of the school authorities themselves, could be continued with minor changes if any to suit the emerging needs, without complicating the processes involved, by assigning the same to authorities outside the point of importance.