Dr. Sultan Muhammad Khan
Keywords; Why the Need of new examination system in Pakistan,
Examination System in the US, Pakistan examination system,
Enrollment
in High and Secondary Schools,
What is the purpose of examination
system?,
Suggestions and Recommendations for reforms in the examination system.
Multiple choice
test; SAT and AST Test, multiple-choice general type test,
Achievement (Ach) Tests, American College Testing (ACT), NTS test, Texas
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).
Why the Need of new Examination System in Pakistan
This study focused on evaluating the quality of the examination system of Pakistan.
Pakistan education is going down day by day. The purpose of this study is to
find the causes of this detracted process in Pakistan. The objectives are: to
evaluate the examination system in Pakistan, to find the causes of this deteriorated
examination system, to suggest some measure to improve the examination system
in Pakistan.
The current examination system is obsolete; it did
not fulfill the requirement of 21th century. This education and examination
system was left for us by British after the independence of Pakistan in 1947.
The purpose of this education system was to prepare clerical staff in the
subcontinent to run the day to day activities of the offices. For which the
British officers were not ready to do it. They wanted people who help them, e.g.,
to control the mass illiterate population, they want people with no brain; they
need the people who can count and calculate. They need people who can write
reports in English for their officers. Who can extend their stay in the
subcontinent. For this purpose they design an education system that can produce
brainless people, who can't think just act on the orders of their officers.
They do not want leaders and thinkers in the occupied territory. They want
people who obey order not to argue and raise the questions.
Unfortunately
after the independence of Pakistan, no one gives serious thoughts to improve
education system in Pakistan. Especially, after 1971 when democracy was
restored in the country and the feudal and capitalist who took control of the
country, they imposed the same colonial education system for common people. For elite class they established private schools system which was very expensive.
To prevent people from getting good education, they implemented education
polices that hinders the efforts of people to get good education.
Following are the major
Reasons / Hinders of public education system in Pakistan.
·
Medium
of instruction
·
Curriculum
·
Examination
system
·
Bureaucracy
of Pakistan
·
The
policy makers
·
The
elite class of Pakistan
In this
article the focus will be on Examination system of Pakistan. However, to have good
examination system we need to have a look at the Examination system of
developed countries. The Examination system of the United States of America is
a very good model.
In their
examination system Students are marked on course they took in each subject
studied from K to 12th class and the Grade Point Average (GPA) is calculated.
Marks are dependent on their performance in different area, including student's
performance in tests in the school, participation in class discussions,
homework assignments, and school projects which they have selected.
Examination System in the US
High
schools issue school ‘transcript' for each student showing their marks and
grades, summarizing the courses taken. If a student wishes to go to college he
can submit copies of his transcript to the college. College or university
acceptance is also based upon personal recommendations from teachers and
eligibility criteria. In some colleges and universities these school mark's
sheet are not accepted. They only accept SAT and AST Test score for admission.
For those institution's Students have to take national college aptitude tests
during their last two years in high school, some colleges require Achievement (Ach)
Tests. These Tests are based on multiple-choice general type test, but they are
designed to measure students aptitude and verbal and mathematical skills.
The known
and widely used tests are the American College Testing (ACT) programme and the
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), both of these tests are recognized by
accredited universities for admission.
The total
SAT score is 1,600 in which half is for mathematical and half for verbal
skills, with the average score usually between 900 and 1,000. Students must
score over 650 in each section or a combined total of over 1,300.
High
school exit exam is a test that a student must pass to receive his high school
diploma. Sometimes states have a series of standardized exams for this purpose.
These tests are often called “end-of-course exams” at the end of completion
high school courses in various core subjects. In some states they require
students to pass end-of-course exams in addition to a comprehensive exit exam.
California, recently suspended its administration of exit exams.
Texas
requires students to pass two types of exit exams. One the Texas Assessment of
Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), and the other is the State of Texas Assessments of
Academic Readiness (STAAR), at end-of-course exams when a student finishes a
course. The TAKS test, test language, arts, math, science and social studies.
While STAAR includes subjects like: English; Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra;
Biology, Chemistry, and Physics; World History, US History, and World
Geography.
“Not too long ago more than half of
U.S. states required that students pass an exam to graduate from high school.
That is changing, with a number of states dropping their exit exams — but a
good number still require them, and that, this post explains, is a big and
unnecessary problem for many students”
A national
uprising has highlighted the misuse and overuse of standardized testing that
hurts students. Now different state is looking for way to end high school exit
testing. In the last few years, 10 states have repealed or delayed high school
exit exams. South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and California even decided to
issue diplomas to thousands of those students who have been denied due to
scores on discontinued tests. The reasons for this retreat is research, which
researcher conducted on exit testing, which shows that exit tests hurt the students.
They increase dropout rates from education.
The
Gates-funded New America think tank 2014 study, “The Case against Exit Exams,”
declared, “New evidence has reinforced
the conclusion that exit exams disproportionately affect a subset of students,
without producing positive outcomes for most.” The study further concluded that
“have tended to add little value for most students, but have imposed costs on
already at-risk ones.”
In the USA
there is no federal mandate requiring high school exit testing. Since the law
No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001, federal law has required testing once
of the students during the grades 9–12 in math, English language arts, and
science.
Pakistan examination system
The examination system of Pakistan is based on
colonial era, the education system that British imposed
on us. The purpose of this education system was to produce only clerical Staff
in subcontinent. After independence of Pakistan, different governments design education
polices, but all these polices were fruitless. The
demand of these polices was the quality in education,
but the Burdon was put on the student's shoulders. The policy makers adopted old British era examination system. However
with time they make it harder for the students to pass the exams and they
called it a step forward toward quality education. The restoration of democracy
in Pakistan in after 1971, the feudal took control of the government and the
sole purpose of their education polices was to prevent common man from geting
education in government public schools. In these polices
the examination system is made harder and harder to increase dropout rate.
Multiple time medium of instruction was changed. Board exams were introduced in
different stages of education due to which millions of students drop out from
the school without completing matric education. One
of the worst experiment was in examination system was the combine exam of 9th
and 10th class. This experiment was continued for more than two decades. Always
the result of this exam was 20 to 25 percent pass. While
majority of the fail students were dropout of schools without completing their matric education. Later in 2000 this experiment was stopped
and 9th and 10th separate exams were started which improve the passing rate of
the students and decrease the dropout from the schools.
After 2018 election people were hoping that PTI government will change the education, and will give
the nation a good education policy, but they are also fail to do so. In the
process they make a huge mistake to change the requirement criteria for
employment of teacher without holding B.Ed. degree to get jobs in the school.
This was not a very thoughtful decision because millions of trained teacher are
without jobs and they started employing untrained teachers. The
reason was the arrogance of the minister who gives an interview to newspapers
for changing employment criteria. After objections on his decision from
educationist and teachers, the KPK government made
it compulsory to keep the words of their minister on the cost of education. Now
there is a rumor that government are going for combine
9th and 10th class board exam. It shows that politicians did not learn from their
fast mistakes. They may be the puppet of feudal and elite class who do not wants
educated voters. This
system suits feudal that needs illiterate people to vote for them in the
election, the voters who don't know their rights, and the voter who doesn't ask
questions. These voter still votes for the corrupt politicians who had been
proven guilty on international level, who have billions of dollars and property
abroad in several countries. However, still these mass illiterate people think
that they are innocent and they vote for them again and again. They create
hurdles in every step to prevent people from education and board exams are
their best weapon to do so. A Ph.D. research study conducted in Punjab on the
Issue of out of School Children in BISE Gujranwala.
Table 1.1 Five Years Class 9th Annual Examination Result of
BISE Gujranwala
Year
|
Applied
|
Appeared
|
Passed
|
Passed
Percentage
|
Failed Percentage
|
2012
|
225031
|
221023
|
88649
|
40.11
|
59.89
|
2013
|
213547
|
207883
|
79200
|
38.09
|
61.91
|
2014
|
243128
|
240088
|
87334
|
36.38
|
63.62
|
2015
|
252548
|
248537
|
100857
|
40.58
|
59.42
|
2016
|
244454
|
240105
|
129670
|
54.01
|
45.99
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source: BISE Gujranwala, 2016
“Table shows that 45.99 percent students in 2016, 59.42
percent in 2015 and 63.62
Percent in 2014,
61.91 percent in 2013 and 59.89 percent in 2012 respectively, failed in class 9
annual examinations at BISE Gujranwala. This is an indication that most of
class 9 pupils are not able to complete the secondary school certificate, and
consequently drop out. (Mughal,
2018)”
While the
overall enrollments in Pakistan Secondary/High Schools, in Class IX-X were 3.6
million students in 2016-17. The average pass rate was 40%, while failing rate was
60%. With this rate of failure 2.4 million (2400000) students dropped out of
the school without complementing their matriculation certificate.
While in
Higher Secondary Classes XI-XII the total number of 1.75 million students
enrolled, with the average pass rate in Pakistan approximately half million
students' and 1.25 million dropped out at this level. In 2018-19 approximately
1.84 million will appear in the examination in which 1342850 (1.3 million) will
be dropped out.
Table 1.2 Enrollment in High and Secondary Vocational
Institutes
 |
| Enrollment in High and Secondary |
Table 1.2
shows that during 1981 and 2007 approximately 19077200 (190.77 million) passed
the exam while approximately 28615800 (286.15 million) failed the examination
and dropped out of school.
Table 1.3 enrollment in high and higher
secondary schools
 |
Table 1.3: Numbers are in thousands
|
Table 1.3
shows that from 2012 to 2018 the numbers of students enrolled were 20508600
(205.08 million). . Keeping in view average of fail students every year at this
level, the number of fail students will be approximately 12305160 (123.05
million).
While in
higher secondary/inter 9342700 (9.34 million) were enrolled and the number of
failed rate at this level based on the average will be approximately 6673357
(6.67 million).
What is the purpose of examination
system?
The
purpose of examination is multi-fold; to evaluate the students learning
achievements, to evaluate the teaching of teachers. Is it a right approach of
examination system? A good approach of examination system is to give a
comprehensive chance to students for learning. The purpose of education
examination system is to improve the learning and reading skill of the
students.
The second
purpose is to evaluate the teaching skills of the teachers, for this purpose
the country need such examination system which help to achieve both objectives of the examination system. The
current board exams are very old and outdated. It did not improve the quality
of education, but it decrease the numbers of dropout students in the country.
It is the major reason that we are still lacking behind in education from other
countries.
·
The
first purpose of education examination system is to improve the learning and
reading skill of the students. A good collection of objective type questions
from the textbook up to three hundred questions which cover every page of the
book. To solve these objectives, he will learn to read, it will also help him
to comprehend and learn the information that is provided in the textbook. This
test must also include inductive and deductive type questions, so it develops
the reasoning skills of the students. This objective type test should be given
as home base test and they should be given enough time to read the textbook and
found the answers. This home based objectives type assignment could be divided
in two parts. One hundred and fifty questions in first semester and the rest
one hundred and fifty questions in the second semester for every textbook.
·
The second purpose is to evaluate the
teaching skills of the teachers. With objectives type examination we can
evaluate the teaching skills of the teacher on the base of the performance of students' achievements in the test. A good result will show
that teacher was committed to his teaching and he used every possible way to develop
the reading and comprehension skills of the students. When the teacher knows
that he will be accountable for the bad result of his students, he will make it
possible that every student understand what he is teaching. For this very
purpose the country need such examination system, which help to
achieve both the objectives of the examination. The current examination
system is outdated. It did not achieve the literacy rate what we are looking
for. Despite it creates hinders in the improvement of literacy rate.
In most of the develop countries objective type test
is implemented for the evaluation of students learning and teacher evaluation.
In the area where reading and writing skills assessment is require there they
use subjective type test, e.g., English, mathematics, etc.
Conclusion
From
analysis it is crystal clear that what we are doing with the education on the
name of quality and board examinations. It is very hard and time-consuming to
calculate the accurate drop out for the last 40 years (1980-2020) for secondary
(9th and 10th) and higher secondary (intermediate) level. For this purpose data
was collected using internet and easily available books, research and other
government documents. Majority data is easily available, but five years of data
from 2008 to 2011 is not available. The data were calculated on the bases of
average of available data for the missing years, the
margin of error is five percent on both sides.
From the
data and its analysis it is evident that in last forty years 47020000 (470.2 million)
students were dropped out from schools without completing
their secondary school education and 29000000 (290 million) students were from
the higher/ inter level. It shows that we are dropping out millions of students
every year at different stages of school on the name of quality and board
examinations. Most develop country like the United States could not afford that
kind of strict examination system where the literacy rate is very high. That
why majority of states are ending school exit exams. The students who are weak
in a particular subject are to attend summer school system. In summer school
system both students and teachers have to attend school in summer vacation
because both are responsible for bad result.
Suggestions and Recommendations
1.
We
need to end board exams and any other drop out exams like United States; the majority
of their states are ending school exit exams.
2.
We
need to change the internal examination system, to a system where students
learn and acquire knowledge from examination and evaluate teacher teaching on
students achievements.
3.
Home
objective type test is recommended for every subject. Three multiple choice questions
from each page of textbook, all the questions should be arranged randomly.
About every objective type question the page number of the respective question should
be mentioned so the student read the page and find out the answer. The purpose
of this drill is that student read every page of a textbook three times to build
the reading habit of the students. Do not give a very easily discoverable
objective type question.
4.
For
improving writing ability in Urdu, English and local language internal
subjective type exam is recommended after every three months. Written test in
mathematics and Islamic studies.
5. For improving writing skills of the
students, dairy writing must be compulsory for students, at least five sentences
in each language subjects.
6. These home objective type test
should administered by parts for each subject and at the end of
the year a short objective type test
should administered from that home base test and in the subject where reading and writing assessment is
required a subjective type test should
be administered. The students who did not pass this test, they will attended classes
in the summer vacations along their teachers. Afterward they should be promoted to next class.
7. For the purpose of admission in
colleges or universities SAT type Test should be implemented during their last
two years in higher secondary school, some colleges/ universities already
require NTS Test. The score of this test could also be used for recruitment
purposes. These Tests should be based on
multiple-choice type test in textbooks subjects which they are studying at this
level, with additional papers to measure student’s aptitude, general, verbal
and mathematical skills.
References
Mughal, A. W. (2018). Investigating
the Issue of Out of School Children in Rural Pakistan: Implications for
Policymakers. Loughborough University.
Pakistan Bureau of
Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2019, from
http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/50_years_statistics/vol1/12.pdf.
Pakistan Economic Survey .
(2018). Retrieved December 15, 2019, from
http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_19/10-Education.pdf.
Why High School Exit Exams Are a Waste of Time Valerie Strauss -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/04/18/why-high-school-exit-exams-are-a-waste-of-time/
7.
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