The Druk Namrup
Tshokpa’s one of the ambitious educational pledges – to do away with
examination until Class VI threw the general public into a spin. Such situation
occurred because the rebuttals done (for political mileage) were more powerful
and convincing than those who stood for the motion. Although the pledge is
pre-eminent in our education system, there are thousands of innocent people got
strung up and worried a lot. Thus, I think it is a call for the educationalists
to cushion the blow.
With whatever
experience I bear in the Bhutanese Education System, to do away with
examination until Class VI is never a thorn in flesh. It is rather a breath of
fresh air that would cater the needs of 21st century children.
The competing
political parties (knowingly) refuted the pledge saying that the quality might
decline should there be no examination. The innocent public simply swung with
these mighty tides. What we must understand is that, “examination”
is never the best yardstick to educate and grade our children. One-time examination
merely measures student’s memory, and not the intellect. And this was realised
long time ago by the masters of classroom. Even today, although we have this
monster “exam” in the schools, the weight is rather low, particularly in the
lower classes.
The “examination”
from all sense, is a bomb to the growing brain. A persistence stress for one or
two weeks of examination period would lead to anxiety and depression, which is
already rampant. The number of people sailing against the examination wind is
growing at a snail’s pace because it is quite demanding to understand the
realities inside four classroom walls. But we must look at the world through
the optimistic lens. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and educational reforms cannot
happen overnight. It is exciting to see such concerns in the party manifesto
rather than waiting for a cry from the classrooms.
A student could be
living with dyslexia. Now, if we continue to strict with conventional yardstick
of “examination” to grade the students, I think, at the end of the day, we are
only destroying the future of our country. Aamir Khan’s “Taare Zameen Par”
depicts the need to discover hidden potentials through various means. Further,
his “3 Idiots” challenges the model of education that is widely used in Asian
schools today. School it not merely about facts and figures. Examination
pressure was targeted with the dialogue, “this is a school, not a pressure
cooker”. Therefore, it is a burning issue to be addressed sooner than later.
Believe me!
Continuous Assessment is a sheer lots of work for our (already over-burdened)
teachers. Given a choice, one time assessments like exam are easier than
ongoing assessments. Yet, Continuous
Assessment is much better way to educate and grade our children. Quite a number
of researchers found that, Continuous Assessment can detect the syndrome of
ignorance at the early stage. Sense of inclusiveness will never be addressed
otherwise. The school should be the place to prepare our children for life, and
not for the examination!
Hence, I ardently would
like to inform the general public that, the Ruling Party’s dream to discontinue
examination till class VI is but an echo of dreams from the classrooms. The
decision is never without rhymes and reasons. May Bhutan be Enlightened!
Disclaimer:
This article in any sense is not political in nature. It is just an outburst of
a confused teacher, and cannot be used as a basis to see which political party
I have been supporting. I clearly understand that civil servants must remain
apolitical.
