Opening the door to "education for all" with the help of computerized objective testing open to all!

Contents: Opening the door to education for all. 1 Abstract 1 Objective tests are better way of testing: 1 Online Computerized Objective Testing Open To All (OOCOTOTA) is further improvement in objective testing: 2 OCOTOTA offered by elite institutions will ease the pressure for admission into them: 2 OCOTOTA will enable all students to compete with students of elite institutions: 2 Current admission tests function more like roadblocks on the road to best education and certification: 3 Incentive may be provided for helping students improve their achievement: 3 OCOTOTA may help in evaluating real worth of various institutions: 3 OCOTOTA may encourage many students to learn things on their own. 4 By reducing compulsions to get admitted into an elite institution, OCOTOTA will reduce tension in the society: 4 OCOTOTA will democratize education and put Indian education system on world map: 4 Objective tests can be put online as well as sold on DVDs: 5 Objective tests would enormously simplify the business of given tests: 5 Some variation in the difficulty level of various objective tests is immaterial: 6 All students should have right to be measured by the same yardstick used in premier institutions: 6 Class rooms of the premier institutions can be expanded to cover all colleges and beyond: 7 Even home can become part of the premier institutions: 7 Let all institutions have a chance to produce first-rate professionals: 7 There is no reason why everybody can’t be measured by the same yard-stick: 7 Some philosophical questions regarding testing: 8 Current subjective examinations evaluate a mix of different abilities: 8 Need for getting separate measure of abilities of a person: 8 For some jobs a fast writing ability may not be essential: 9 For some jobs a good linguist ability may not be essential: 9 Evaluating real understanding of a subject: 9 Evaluating understanding of a subject with the help of objective tests: 9 Considerations with regard to grading scales: 10 A comparison of “proficiency of a person in a subject” with “sweetness of a sweet dish”: 10 Why should regurgitation capacity of a person be given so much importance? 11 Fuzzification of test score may lead to consideration of other important things: 11 Tidbits from the history of grading: 11 Harvard & Michigan Universities had three point grading system, once upon a time: 12 The struggle to humanize schools pushed some institutions to move to simple pass/fail options: 12 A person with “highest academic rank in a class” is “elected” rather than determined from his/her test scores: 12 Should a “failing” grade be declared in the transcript?. 13 Additional thoughts about primary and secondary school education: 13 Mirage like shifting dates for promised fulfillment of people’s dreams: 13 Lack of education is at the root of powerlessness, lack of self-worth & dignity: 14 Two track educational system – private & government schools: 15 Specific plans are needed to press demand for good universal education: 15 Action plan: 15 No price is too big to pay for universal education for all: 15 A look at the question of resources for education: 16 Educational taxation on religious institutions: 16 Conscription for educational service: 16 Increased percentage of budgetary allocation for education: 17 Sliding scale fees for parent that can afford: 17 A few words about proposed curriculum: 17 Curricular hours should include the following: 18 Extracurricular activities: 19 Two parts of a class hour: Teacher intensive, & student intensive parts. 19 Reduced teaching load for teachers towards their self-improvement 19 Schools have to be made centers of excellence & cultural centers: 19 When schools become intellectual and cultural hubs of the community, teachers are less likely to play truant: 20 Criteria for retention, promotion and rewards for teachers. 20 Here is a chance for us to make an impact on world-wide education; let us not miss it! 20 Opening the door to education for all with computerized testing! Dr. Satinath Choudhary Abstract Online Computerized Objective Testing Open To All (OCOTOTA) for all subjects for all levels of education -- from primary to the highest educational level -- has been justified and proposed. It will open the door to highest level of education of highest quality for all. Such systems, made available in the open market on CD or DVD, can be used by students for self-evaluation, and then for certification by a recognized secure testing organization. Further, some a discussion about philosophical questions pertaining to tests has been presented on issues like subjective and objective testing, how time limits obscure test of real understanding of the subject matter on the part of the examinee, grading scale, whether failing grades, or grades unsatisfactory to a students need to be necessarily recorded on a transcript of grades, etc. Even if many people do not care about some of the observations made in the discussion about some of the philosophical question regarding tests, just the instantaneous availability of the objective tests can have revolutionary impact on education at all levels. Finally, some thoughts are given towards improvements of primary and secondary school system. It would be silly to think of higher education for all without aching primary and secondary education for all. Objective tests are better way of testing: Today, in the USA, admission into undergraduate colleges, graduate colleges, medical colleges, law colleges, MBA programs, etc., are done primarily on the basis of results objective tests like, SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), GRE (Graduate Record Examinations), MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), LSAT (Law School Admission Test), GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test), etc., respectively. Even for lower levels, like 5th and 8th grades, they have objective Regents’ Tests, which are important examinations for students’ placement in good schools. I am pointing out These facts are being pointed out to suggest that if these important exams can be objective type, there is no reason why examinations at all levels in all courses of study cannot be purely objective. In some special cases when some supplementary written (subjective) tests are considered necessary, the students who pass the objective part may be further given to the subjective tests. Facilities for practical training and practical testing may be made available to students who clear the objective and any subjective test. On the other hand, subjective tests are far more cumbersome and secrecy and security problems are nightmarish, as pointed out later in detail. Online Computerized Objective Testing Open To All (OOCOTOTA) is further improvement in objective testing: Further, there are huge advantages to creating big test-banks from which computers can create random test-sets at the spur of the moment. The test-banks should be large enough so that it will be easier for students to study and comprehend a textbook rather than try to memorize the test-banks. Such tests are already being used by companies like Microsoft and CISCO for online testing to certify their technicians. It will prevent so many of our students to be pushed into studying subjects that are not their first preference, just because they could not secure admission into their favorite subject. Naturally, they cannot do as well in those disciplines as they would have done in the disciplines where their heart is. We can surely make use of additional students with elite degrees without getting admitted into the elite institutions. Our country needs them. On percentage basis, we do not produce as many graduates as most industrialized countries do. China and other third world countries too produce many more graduates on the basis of percentage of population. In the following an attempt has been made to show how on line testing can facilitate opening of the door to highest level education for all who have perseverance, persistence and determination for the same! OCOTOTA offered by elite institutions will ease the pressure for admission into them: Online testing open to all by elite institutions would ease the admission pressure on them. Today, innumerable students are denied the privilege of getting the coveted certificates from the elite institutions more because of limitation of space in the institution than on account of the inability of the students to comprehend what is taught in those institutions. Limitation in the space has given rise to the tradition of limiting entrance with the help of admission tests. If one does not finish at the top in the admission test, s/he does not even have a chance to study and appear in the subject-matter-tests offered by elite institutions. If elite educational institutions offer online testing of various subjects for all levels of education at their institution, open to all, students would be as desperate as they are today in seeking admission into an elite institution. OCOTOTA will enable all students to compete with students of elite institutions: Among the students who are unable to secure admission to an elite institution, certainly there are lots of students who can pass various examinations given at the elite institutions. In fact, there will be plenty who would have been able to do better than the median students passing from the said coveted institution. There may even be some students who may be able to do better than the very best admitted to those coveted institutions. Thus the system of admission tests for getting admission into colleges works more like road blocks to many who could have learnt those subject matters on their own or learnt them from a tutor and done well enough to pass the same examinations that students admitted in those institutions have to pass. There is no need to limit testing and certification offered at the elite institutions only to those who have performed very well in their earlier studies, or done well in the admission test, or have enough money to buy a seat, or have connections good enough to get a seat, or belong to one of the groups being given compensatory privilege to uplift the group. The subject-matter-tests can and should be made open to all. Current admission tests function more like roadblocks on the road to best education and certification: At present basically institutions are evaluated more by the height of their roadblock (stiff competition in the admission test and high fees) than the knowledge they are able to impart to their students, including slow learners. In fact, their admission tests screen out the slow learners. The efficient learners could have learnt things without any help from the institutions. Actually, many of the supposed best institutions could be creating flunkies (by breaking self-confidence of many) out many of the brightest that we have by flunking them or placing them at the end of their classes. We need to find ways of facilitating students who may not already be at the top of their classes to compete with the ones who already learnt successful ways of studying and achieving good grades, and enable them to learn things and get the best possible certificates in the subjects that enchant them. Incentive may be provided for helping students improve their achievement: The government could provide incentive funds for institutions that produce largest improvements among their students. Largest improvement is possible if students admitted are relatively low achievers but they are converted to high achievers. Not much improvement is possible if students taken are already high achievers. In fact, if their results suffer, the college may be held responsible, to a certain extent, for the decline in their students' achievement. If all students are low achievers, the students may not have enough stimulation to achieve higher. It may be best for them to take a suitable mix of students and provide incentive for students to tutor their peers and help in uplifting overall achievement. Such incentives may encourage institutions to find reasons for low achievement among the below par achievers and focus their attention on their deficiencies. Some students may be slow in reading; others may be slow in writing. Still others may be weak in mathematics. Some may need psychological assistance. Incentives for improvement in students' achievement would encourage educational institutions to provide individualized assistance. OCOTOTA may help in evaluating real worth of various institutions: Many students may be somewhat slower than others in learning things. However, speed of learning is not essential for all kinds of jobs. Some others may be too slow in reading and/or writing out their answer to the admission tests. But speed of reading and/or writing is not essential for all jobs. What is most important is whether a student has understood a subject matter and gains adequate knowledge to learn even more of that subject. If speed of reading and/or writing is essential for a certain job, special tests for reading/writing may be given for such jobs. Some people or organizations may be able to find better ways teaching or self-teaching. They may help supposed slow learners pass the most reputed tests at a slower pace suitable to them. It may turn out that many of the institutions currently regarded as elite actually practice poor method of teaching. They may be regarded as elite solely because they charge huge sums of money and people think that if they are charging so much money, they must be good. Open testing will be able to highlight such deficiencies if students from outside do better than their own students. OCOTOTA may encourage many students to learn things on their own. Once we have such a system in place, it is possible that a student who is declined admission somewhere may say: Fine, I will show you guys that I am better than the admitted guys. And s/he may go on to study the subject matter so well, s/he may beat all of those admitted into the institution s/he desired to get into. This is not a possibility under the present system that will keep the ones who fail to secure admission away from all subject-matter-tests conducted by the institution. In fact, a student who does well studying a subject on his/her own, may be bettered prepared for his/her future advancement in this dynamic age when it is necessary for people to be constantly improving and/or learning new things throughout one's life on their own. Thus it is clear that if at all possible, tests given at elite institutes should be open to all who would like to take a crack at them; and this is can indeed be made possible if objective type online tests were used by these institutes. By reducing compulsions to get admitted into an elite institution, OCOTOTA will reduce tension in the society: The biggest advantage of an online objective type of testing system will be that as it would not be necessary to get admission into elite institutions for the sake of an elite degree, it would prevent tension among various segments of the society that are clamoring for the privilege of getting admitted into elite institutions, which is straining the fabrics our society beyond limits. Passing admission tests would not determine the future of our youths. What would determine their future would be what they are able to learn no matter how they do it, and do well in the open tests conducted by various institutions. They should be able to learn things by taking help of a tutor, a tutorial or coaching institution run by one or more individuals, or learn things on their own, at their own pace. OCOTOTA will democratize education and put Indian education system on world map: One can see what the computer training centers at various nook and corner have done. People's ability to learn computer skill from those training centers or on their own has put our software industry on the world map. Testing one's computing ability is easy -- just put then on computer and one will know how well they know it. Testing people's ability in other subjects should be made just as easy. As long as people are able to pass a suitable objective test for a subject, they should be able to get a certificate/degree in that subject. Needless to say, the tests should be held by secure testing organizations at secure sites, as opposed to leaked out internal tests given by sundry colleges and universities that are spawning everywhere with the help of or by unscrupulous politicians. Good, simple and secure computerized objective testing systems for all subjects at all levels of education will put India on the world map in all subjects. All that is necessary is to force all of the supposed elite institutions to create secure online testing and certification systems open to all. This can be, and needs to be, done for all levels of education, from primary, all the way to the highest level of university education. Having established the desirability for, and possibility of, making extensive use of online objective type of testing by elite institutions, we can now go on to explore other improvements in testing. Objective tests can be put online as well as sold on DVDs: Such tests can be automated, wherein tests on stand alone computers as well as online test can be created instantaneously. After a student has finished answering his/her test paper on a computer, the same may be instantaneously evaluated and the result announced. For this purpose, all one has to do is to create a large test-bank that would include sufficiently large number of objective type of questions from each section of a textbook, so that it impossible to answer a randomly chosen sample of those questions purely from rote memory by memorizing the question bank and their answers. A request to the computer would instantaneously pick out a set of questions uniformly distributed thought the whole textbook. Owing to the large number of questions in the question bank, to perform well in answering any set of questions one will have to master the subject matter in the textbook rather than rely on rote memory. Thus, the test-bank may turn out to be as thick as, or even thicker than, the textbook itself. The test-bank may be published in the form of printed textbook and/or DVD. The DVD can also carry program that can create tests, and then evaluate a student’s answer. Objective tests would enormously simplify the business of given tests: Such tests will greatly simplify the process of testing and huge amount of security and expense needed to conduct usual annual tests. The objective computer testing will obviate the necessity of testing all students of any batch at the same time. Current system of testing wherein all students are given the same set of questions just once or twice a year, involves daunting tasks like: enormous security associated with the setting up of the question set secretly; printing the same in total secrecy; carrying the question sets to various examination centers under guard; security involved in making sure that any of the students do not receive solutions to the question set from outside sources before they finish exams; transporting the answer sheets under guards to a place where they are evaluated; evaluating the answers under secrecy and security; tabulating the results; and then announcing the results. Moreover, as all students taking the tests are given the same set of questions, they need a lot of space and invigilators for the tests, interrupting their regular jobs. All of these would become unnecessary if it is not necessary for the students to be given exactly the same test. Some variation in the difficulty level of various objective tests is immaterial: Question sets selected from the big question-bank at different time may be of slightly different difficulty levels. However, we know that test score of a person measured by any set is not a very accurate measure of the knowledge and understanding of an examinee, any way. Different batches (of different years) get different question sets, yet the scores of examinees of different years are not treated differently – they are treated as though they graduated at the same time. A first class from one year is equivalent to a first class from another year. Thus, it is not necessary at all for the test sets to be precisely the same for all students. In fact, comparison of numeric evaluation of students on scales of 100 or 1000 are fallacious, as discussed later. They give false notion of accuracy to the order of one out of 100 or 1000. The scales need to be reduced considerably, to something like one in three or so. As long as we accept the premise that students do not have to be tested with the help of one and the same set of questions, the result of the online or computer testing with different sets of questions given to different students are as good as any objective test in which all students are given the same set of questions. This being so, a high security space may be kept open around the year, possibly around the clock, ready to test anyone at any time under video surveillance. If necessary, students may have to reserve their time slots for taking examination at mutually suitable date and time. One would need just a couple of such test centers in each state, and all of the daunting problems (mentioned above) that current examination systems present us with will be solved. All students should have right to be measured by the same yardstick used in premier institutions: Examination centers mentioned above will enable all students, irrespective of what college they attend, or whether they study on their own, to take the same tests that the students from the vaunted Central Institutions take. It will equalize all colleges and even self-study to the same level as attending one of the premier institutions. It will be like taking the Public Service Examinations, except that they can take practice exams as many times as they like before they go to the official test-centers and take test(s) corresponding to any college course. It is not necessary to create a multi-level society based on the admission tests. Those who could make it to the premier institutions become class one guys, with the rest consigned to second and third classes even if they mastered the subject matters of their studies better than many of those attending the former. The latter should have opportunity to prove themselves to be as good as those admitter to the former. Computerized tests open to all will equalize all students no matter where they are enrolled, or not enrolled anywhere. It will be ultimate equalizer of all. All it will require from a person is perseverance and a will to master something and become somebody. Class rooms of the premier institutions can be expanded to cover all colleges and beyond: There may be some value in sitting together in groups and learning together. At the very least, it may enable students in networking with others with similar interests. Probably smaller class rooms are always more conducive to learning as well as networking compared to lectures in big lecture halls. In those classes video tapes of the actual lectures in the premier institutions may be played. If the number of students wishing to study any subject is more than even the current capacity of colleges and universities put together, additional rooms may be rented and built, making sure that nobody who is interested in further studies in any subject is left out for lack of seats. Even home can become part of the premier institutions: In addition, there may be students who may want to study things on their own. If a student studying at home can take the same examination as those attending one of the institutions, and perform as well as them, the former has to be considered better than the latter because s/he did not have as much help as the latter did. Such students may even be given some extra bonus points for having mastered various subjects on their own. This may even encourage many of the students with best study habits to study various subjects on their own. Studies on one’s own has many benefits: They will gain the confidence and know how of studying on their own. Their confidence in self-study will get a big boost. They will not need the crutch of attending lectures in some college or the other for learning anything. They will never stop studying things on their own for the rest of their lives. Studying on ones own, alone or in groups, or with the help of tutors or coaches will effectively fling the doors of premier institutions open for all and relieve pressure of admission on the prestigious institutions. Let all institutions have a chance to produce first-rate professionals: For every student admitted into the vaunted Central Institutions, numerous equally good students are left out. They end up attending second and third rate colleges and receiving second and third rate degrees. With the help of above arrangements, there would be only first-rate degrees certified from first-rate institutions. There is no reason why everybody can’t be measured by the same yard-stick: With the help of the computerized testing round the year, all those who deserve to have a degree would be able to get the same. All degrees would be from a highly acclaimed institution, as their curriculum as well as question sets would be formed in those institutions. Currently, premium put on the degrees from these vaunted institutions owes more to the relatively small number of students who are given opportunity to get the same rather than their products having better knowledge and ability than those from other institutions. It is the admission test that happens to be more important than the tests in the chosen field. This needs to be avoided. All should be able to try to get the highest quality education and pass with flying colors, no matter whether a person has attended one institution or the other, or whether attended any institution at all. If someone has been able to study something on his or her own, (or by attending a third rate coaching or tutorial institution,) and performs as well as students attending lectures of the wisest experts in a subject, which student should be considered to be more capable of learning and learned? I would vote in favor of the former (who learnt everything on his/her own). If such a person beats many others admitted in the said Central Institutions, the door to any additional practical training and/or written test facilities that may be part of the curriculum of the said Institutions would have to be opened for such persons. Some philosophical questions regarding testing: So far, all I have done is show the possibility of replacing once a year written tests (subjective tests at huge number of sites, with attendant security problems), by round the year objective tests at fewer secure places with proper security, open to the public at large. This (acceptance of computerized testing envisaged above) in itself will bring about revolutionary changes. However, in the following we will probe a bit deeper into some philosophical questions pertaining to tests of knowledge, measuring scale, transcripts of test results, etc. Current subjective examinations evaluate a mix of different abilities: Current written examinations amalgamate a number of abilities of a person and yield a mixed result without giving a clear picture of any one of those abilities. In written tests, the result corresponds to a mixture of: real understanding of a subject, writing (or linguistic) ability of a person, and speed of writing. A bottleneck in any of these abilities is going adversely affect test score of an examinee. From the point of view of learning a subject matter, obviously, a test of understanding of a subject matter is the most important thing. There should be a way of measuring this ability without its test score being vitiated with the lack of ability of a person write or lack of adequate writing speed. Need for getting separate measure of abilities of a person: Excellence in certain areas (like math, physics, etc.) may not be very dependent on the linguistic ability of a person. There is no reason to hinder the progress of a person in mathematics or math like subjects just because s/he is not able to write good English or whatever other language. Possibly s/he may learn enough of writing skills after mastering his/her skills in math like subjects. Likewise, if a person can express himself/herself well in his/her writings, that’s all that may be necessary for certain jobs, and it is not necessary to insist on a good understanding of any subject. Further, speed of writing may be of importance in some specific positions, as opposed to any other kind of ability. Lack of any one of the abilities should not hinder the progress of a person in strengthening his/her other ability or abilities, or holding a job where some other ability (or abilities) are needed. Arguably, speed of writing may be of the least importance, at least in some instances. However, lack of fast writing ability is likely to adversely affect a person’s test performance in practically all subjective tests. This is not right. One should be able to separate various abilities of a person and get a more complete idea of his/her abilities. What I am trying to say is, that as far as possible, it would be good to measure each ability of a person separately, without amalgamating it with others. For some jobs a fast writing ability may not be essential: If we give plenty of time for a person to finish his/her test, speed of writing will not be a factor in such subjective examinations. For some jobs writing speed may be essential. In those cases, one should be able to require a test for speed of writing. For other jobs or further education, where speed of writing may not be critical, one should be happy to learn about the knowledge of a person s/he is being hired for. For some jobs a good linguist ability may not be essential: Particularly for new immigrants we tend to be quite tolerant about their linguistic abilities. If we can be tolerant about the language ability of new immigrants, why can’t we be tolerant towards linguistic ability of others? Examiners may clearly be instructed not to deduct any points for the lack of a good linguistic ability of an examinee. Linguistic ability can, and should, be separately measured so that it may be taken into account for positions that require mastery of this ability. Evaluating real understanding of a subject: Thus, to evaluate real understanding of a person of any particular subject matter by subjective tests, it may be necessary to give as much time to the examinees as they individually need; and to examine their test assuming that they are new immigrants, and try to ignore all linguistic mistakes. Evaluating understanding of a subject with the help of objective tests: In case of objective testing, no writing is needed. Therefore, speed of writing is not a factor. However, reading speeds becomes important because of a large number of questions with multiple choice answers from which selection has to be made. From my own experience, I have seen that most times, for a wider spread of in the test scores, the test makers tend to make time as a crucial factor by requiring too many questions to be answered in the given limited time. Further, they may ask too many finer details for which rote memory assumes more importance than understanding of a subject. For jobs for which speed of reading is essential, a separate test for speed reading with comprehension should be given. For jobs for which rote memory is important a special test meant to measure capacity of a person to memorize facts and figures needs to be prepared and administered. However, there is no need to mix the measure of understanding of a subject with speed reading and rote memory abilities. Thus, to evaluate real understanding of a subject, (a) plenty of time needs to be given to the students, and (b) the questions should not pertain to finer details that require nothing more than rote memory for appropriate answers. It may so happen that there may not be a wide variation in the result of such a test. That may mean that it is relatively easy to get a good understanding of the subject matter for those who read the textbooks carefully. In that case, all examinees need to be passed with flying grades (first class), as far as understanding of the subject matter is concerned. It is not essential for some of the examinees to be given second and third classes as far as a good understanding of the subject is concerned, if they all have good understanding of the subject.. Considerations with regard to grading scales: In subjective tests, the grades given to the same students may vary widely depending upon the individual grader. The grades may vary even with the mood of the time at which s/he grades a particular paper. Under objective testing too, the grades of a student may vary if the student took the test several times. This variation may depend upon varying degree of difficulty of the question set and sections of the textbook mastered by the student. In either case, it may seem that a score of, say, 83 should not be treated differently from a score of 84. Scores of 831 and 832 are even less different. In such cases, something else should be taken into account to select one of the two. Possibly something else should play more important role in the selection of a person no matter what. Perhaps this kind of dilemma was one of the reasons why in the USA they started the tradition of letter grades: A, B, C, D and F. A comparison of “proficiency of a person in a subject” with “sweetness of a sweet dish”: Does it make sense to say that something is sweet to the order of 831 or 832 out of 1000. If one were insistent upon measuring the sweetness so accurately, I guess one could do so. Perhaps, with the help of molecular spectrometer, or something like that, one could find out the number of sweetness molecules emanating from the two sweet dishes under consideration and claim one to be sweeter than the other. However, can one may wonder, if there is any sense in distinguishing sweetness of order 832 from sweetness of order 832? Further, so many molecules other than just sweetness molecules go towards the making of a great sweet dish. Just because we cannot measure those other molecules easily (or it may be easier to measure sweetness molecules), would it make sense in grading the quality of sweet dishes solely based on their degree of sweetness? If not, what is the point in measuring that sweetness so accurately? Perhaps it does not make much sense to go beyond the three-point scale of “very sweet”, “medium sweet” and “not sweet”, in describing the sweetness of sweet dishes. Perhaps “proficiency of a person in a subject” is just as fuzzy a thing as “sweetness” of sweet dishes. If that is true, proficiency of a person in a subject also needs to be measured on an analogous three-point scale of excellent, good and inadequate, or something like that, rather than on a scale of one in 1000 or so, which gives a false picture of the measure being accurate to the order of one in 1000. Why should regurgitation capacity of a person be given so much importance? There are many kinds of proficiencies involved with knowledge of a subject matter: proficiency in regurgitation, proficiency in critical thinking about a subject matter, real insight into a subject matter, and so forth. A test generally measures one’s regurgitation proficiency. Besides, there are so many other things that go into making of a great person: integrity of a person, his/her commitment towards helping the society, her/his perseverance for a good cause in the face of adversity, etc. are just some of the ingredients in the making of a person. Agreed, these latter characteristics are difficult to measure, just as many of the characteristics (that may be difficult to measure) that go into making of a great sweet dish. Are we justified in measuring just the regurgitation proficiency of a person and giving him or her preference on the basis of the regurgitating proficiency alone in everything, jobs, admission into a college, etc.? Fuzzification of test score may lead to consideration of other important things: Fuzzification of test scores (i.e., measuring test score on the scale of excellent, good and fail rather on the scale of 0-100 or 0-1000) would naturally lead people towards accepting other considerations than just test grades. One may be faced with the (happy as well as unhappy) situation wherein many more candidates may happen to have the grade of excellent than the number of positions for which they have to be selected. This situation is a happy situation because of the availability of so many excellent candidates. It is an unhappy situation because some of the excellent candidates will have to be dropped off from the list of successful candidates. Any way, faced with this kind of happy-unhappy situation, one will have to take other characteristics of the candidates and their groups into account. Considerations like dedication of a candidate towards upliftment of the humanity and promotion of peace and harmony in the society, etc., together with the necessity to equitable distribution of power in the society may have to be considered. One can also argue: what good is one’s regurgitation capacity if it is not going to be used towards uplifting the society and not used towards creation and maintenance of peace and harmony in the society? Considering all these factors, to many it may seem that equitable distribution of power has to be given top priority, even more than one’s regurgitation capacity. This is because in the absence of equitable distribution of power among different segments of the society there can’t be peace and harmony in the society; nor will there be much of development work because all those in power would be trying to sabotage the development of others outside power. Tidbits from the history of grading: Just because most of us in India have been graded on 100-point scales, we may think of such a scale to be universal. However, those familiar with American schools and colleges might know that in the USA five-point system of A, B, C, D and F, happens to be most popular way of grading students. However, this has not been the case forever. The history of marking system is less than 200 years old in the USA. In 1897, Mount Holyoke approved grades of A = excellent, B = good, C = fair, D = (barely) passed, and E = failed. It is variation of this system that prevalent in most colleges and universities today. Harvard & Michigan Universities had three point grading system, once upon a time: In thinking of the idea of measuring proficiency of a student in a subject on a three-point scale, I am not alone. I found an article, that mentions about two colleges that have used similar scales for evaluating their students. In “An A Is Not An A Is Not An A: A History of Grading,” by Mark W. Durm, in “An Educational Forum, vol. 57, Spring 1993, at the site: http://www.indiana.edu/~educy520/sec6342/week_07/durm93.pdf, there are mentions about Harvard and Michigan having used three-point grading systems: Harvard University had a three point grading system in 1895: “failed”, “passed”, “passed with distinction”. In 1896, Michigan University adopted the resolution to use grades of: Passed, Incomplete, Conditioned, Not-passed, Absent. The struggle to humanize schools pushed some institutions to move to simple pass/fail options: Further, in an article “The History of Grading in Three Minutes” by Marita Moll at: http://www.ctf-fce.ca/en/press/1998/PR30.HTM, Marita Moll says, “In the 1960’s, the struggle to humanize schools pushed some institutions to move to simple pass/fail options and written evaluations.” Apparently, the smaller the number of options in grades, the more humane is a system. One might ask what is it that makes Pass/Fail grades more humane than grades over ABCDF scale? On P/F system, among the students doing a reasonable amount of studies, there is no cutthroat competition to prove oneself better than others. They know that with reasonable amount of studies, they would be able to pass the course. Beyond that reasonable amount of studying, additional time used in studying the subject is for the sake of gaining more knowledge rather than getting better grades. It is also possible that intense competition to gain top score in a test, with nobody else standing by his/her side (with the same grade), may promote self-centeredness and a feeling of superiority and arrogance among students. In a situation wherein many students are likely to attain top grade, the vain feeling of arrogance, egotism and selfishness are less likely to be nurtured. In other words, grades over the scale of ABCDF are more kindly compared to grades on the 100-point scale of 0-100. Likewise, evaluations over the 2 or 3 point scales of Fail/Pass or Fail/Good/Excellent would be still more humane compared to the ABCDF scale. A person with “highest academic rank in a class” is “elected” rather than determined from his/her test scores: Mark W. Durm has also mentioned about Valedictorian of the class of 1901 having been “elected”, rather than automatically going to the student with the highest academic rank in a class. Durm says: In addition, there was apparently no standard process for the selection of the valedictorian. Ezra Stiles, the president of Yale in the late eighteenth century, had an interesting valedictorian oration in his diary concerning valedictorian oration in Latin for July of 1871. The valedictorian was elected by the class. Stiles wrote: “The seniors presented me their election of Gridly for Valedictory Orator, whom I approved, …” (Stiles, 1901) This shows that there can be more to an academic rank of a student than simply his/her test score. Surely, test scores may be very important consideration in the assignment of positions of power, however, it need not be the only consideration, or even the top criterion, some may reasonably argue, as was pointed out earlier. Election to positions of power is not a novelty in the USA. In the US many of the judges and state attorneys are elected officials. There is no reason why many more officials cannot or should not be elected rather than selected based solely on their test score, or a combination of test score and interview score. Should a “failing” grade be declared in the transcript? There is also a question of whether even failing grades need to be entered into one’s certificate. Some may argue that if someone passes a course after several attempts, his or her IQ is not as good as that of one who passes a course in the very first attempt. Others may argue that if a measure of IQ is considered to be important let the examiners come up with a test specifically designed to measure IQ. We don’t need to try to infer IQ from a test designed to measure something else. A certificate of proficiency in a subject has to be just that. It does not need to include a list of deficiencies. In fact, some students may not even be satisfied with the grades of “good” on their certificate, they may want only “excellent” to show up on their certificate. They should be able to retake any of the examinations as many times as they would like (subject to availability of the test center) and improve their grade. Else, have it eliminated from their certificate. They need to show only those proficiencies they are proud of. One may be good in math without having much of aptitude for subjects like music or sports or poetry writing, or vice-versa. Such a person does not need to show on his/her certificate that s/he has no aptitude for music, sports and poetry writing, or that s/he took these courses and failed to pass tests for the same. Compulsory entry of the failing test grades (or grades one is not proud of) would discourage the person even to attempt learning subjects they have little aptitude for. If failure (or grades unsatisfactory to a student) were not to be recorded, the person would not hesitate in trying to learn subjects s/he has no aptitude for. By trying to learn, at least the person would gain some proficiency, though not good enough to be declared to have passed these subjects. Any regulation that discourages a person from learning any thing is undesirable. Additional thoughts about primary and secondary school education: Mirage like shifting dates for promised fulfillment of people’s dreams: People’s dreams revolve around the welfare and brighter future of their children, which is inextricably tied to their education. Everybody agrees that education is the key to the salvation of its downtrodden. However, all we have seen is shifting goals and plans for education from various governments since our independence. The goal of “Free compulsory education for all children up to 14 years by 1960” got a short shrift right from the time of launching of our constitution in 1950 when it was pushed into pious directive principles rather than being enacted as laws giving right to free education to all children, force parents to send their children to school, penalize those that use child labor and force governments to provide good schools sans overcrowding. The said goal was reiterated in a couple versions of National Policy for Education (NPE), starting with 1986, modified in 1992.[1] That was followed by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 2001-02, setting achievement of the same goal by 2010. Then came the 86th Amendment to the constitution, which made education of children a fundamental “duty of the parents,” shifting the obligation from the government to parents! Finally, a Draft of Free and Compulsory Education Bill was passed by the Parliament on 8th January, 2004)[2], which Shifts constitutional obligation of the State to support elementary education to the parents and the local authorities. Lack of education is at the root of powerlessness, lack of self-worth & dignity: Education is power. Lack of education is at the root of powerlessness, lack of self-worth & dignity, lack of will to fight against injustices. As per the UNDP report of 2005[1], adult literacy rate in India is supposed to be around 61%, which is ranked at ignominious 146th position in the community of world’s countries. India committed 4.1% of its GDP in public appending for education, while around 90 countries spend a higher percentage for their education. We should be ashamed of ourselves. Today no developed nation is without universal primary & secondary education for all. Even among the developing countries, those that appear to have surged ahead of others, like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, etc., have implemented universal primary and secondary education for all. We cannot think of facilitating higher education (education beyond secondary school diploma) for all unless primary and secondary education for all has been accomplished. However, in India even in the twenty-first century majority of our people are not even literate. However, according to Economic Survey 2004-05, drop out in 2002-03 at the upper primary level was 52.8 per cent. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India, the number of Secondary School graduates (matriculates) in India in 2001 was less than 80 millions out of a population of more than a billion. In other words, not more than 8% of our population had high school diploma. If more than 50% of students don't even reach secondary school, and far less graduate from high schools, any talk of "higher education for all" is futile. Nonetheless, higher education should be facilitated for whoever graduates from high schools. Two track educational system – private & government schools: With the availability of better private schools for those who could afford its higher fees, the powers that be neglected government schools. As a result, today we have reached a stage when we have two-track educational system: private ones for people with power and influence, and government schools for the downtrodden who cannot stop the downward trend in the government schools. However, even the private schools are actually not much better than the government schools. Proper education is an expensive business. Private institutions cannot provide proper education and be economically viable. Even in Mecca of private enterprise – the USA – most students attend government schools. We need to start public agitation against the neglect of government schools. All parties that espouse the welfare of the downtrodden have to make education as the prime issue in their political manifestos. Today we see proliferation of the so-called informal schools. This immediately implies two kinds of education – formal and informal. Obviously, informal education is not meant for children of the powerful and influential people. That means informal is specifically geared towards placating the poorer people. Our constitution simply talks about compulsory education, not about a two-track education system. We must not tolerate something called “informal” education for the poor, while the rich can send their children to formal schools. Specific plans are needed to press demand for good universal education: Public agitations for universal education can’t simply be nebulous demand to improve education for all. It has to become as specific time bound plan as possible; and force the government to implement the same or come up with a better plan. For example, a plan to put all children from the age of 1 to 15 in the next five year has to entail what is to be done during the next year. Say, next year all children in the age group of 5-7 have to be in school in a KG or first grade classes. Next year all children in the age group of 4-9 years must be taken care of. And so forth (3-11, 2-13, 1-15), until all children from age of one year to fifteen are taken care of in the next five years. Childcare for toddlers is essential to free women to work, otherwise they would be using the older siblings to take care of the younger ones. Action plan: The above mentioned plan for the government is a five-year plan for taking care of all children from 1-15 years regarding education. We would like to give ourselves one year to propagate this idea all over the country. Thus we essentially have a six-year plan for our universal education for all, starting with country-wide discussion of our plan during the first year to mobilize enough people and force the government to adopt our plan. No price is too big to pay for universal education for all: Questions with regard to resources have to be dealt with. If foreign forces invade a country, we would try to defend by all it takes. Likewise we have to defend the life of our children from degenerating into a worthless life without dignity and self-respect by any means possible. No price can be said to be too much for universal education of all children. Towards the goal for universal education, midday meal and bearing all expenses for books, notebooks and pen and pencils have to be planned, and classes must not be allowed to go beyond 30 per classroom. Further, to prevent absence of any child from a school for the lack of food, provisions have to be made for meals other than the midday meals. (Staff responsible for meals should be different from the teacher, lest the teacher may spend most of their energy in meals management.) Constructive and creative plans for optional after school hours also will have to be planned to add to the attraction of school curriculum. A look at the question of resources for education: Educational taxation on religious institutions: Religious institutions are collecting enormous sums of money. We have no idea how they are being spent. Some of it must being spent towards furthering communal hatred and communal parties. It is high time their books are opened for public scrutiny. At least a nominal tax towards education must be levied upon religious institutions. Once we have an idea of the flow of money in and out of religious institutions, we can later adjust taxation upon them. Conscription for educational service: Part of the increased manpower requirement for teaching and non-teaching staff may be met by recourse to conscription for educational purpose. Many countries conscript their youth for various periods of time for armed services duties. We will have to conscript them for educational services, as the blight of illiteracy and paucity of further education must be fought on a war footing. We can do one of the following two things: (a) Increase the duration of Bachelor’s degree for all disciplines by two years. One year will be for teacher’s training, the next year will be for teaching or teaching related work. If we get more conscripts than needed for teaching purpose, they may profitably be used by the government for other services. (b) The other alternative is that if one is admitted for a higher education degree, his or her conscription will be postponed until s/he has finished his or her degree. If one quits the higher education before finishing, s/he will not be able to use any of his or her degrees or certificates from Secondary School Certificate upward, until and unless one finishes one’s two-year of national service that includes a year of teachers’ and good citizenship training. A student may be allowed to finish the curriculum on teaching and good citizenship training while s/he is studying other things. Salary during the conscription years may be considered to be a small scholarship towards finishing a student’s education, and hence may be kept low, possibly as low as Rs. 2,000/ month. Perhaps part-time teaching with the extension of total duration may be acceptable if a student would like to take up a regular job without finishing the national service. For example, if one were to teach only two hours a day while working on a regular job, he or she will need to volunteer for a period of two years instead of one year of teaching. Increased percentage of budgetary allocation for education: Since lack of universal education (at least up to secondary school) can be considered to be genocidal, no expenditure can be regarded as more important than expenditure on education, be that defense or whatever else. A government that allows a country to corrode from within without universal education does not need to be defended. It would be better to let it be captured by foreigners if they can provide universal education and dignity to its entire citizen. Invaders cannot subjugate a country that is well educated. Just look at Germany and Japan. They are not supposed to have armed forces of their own. However, can any country in the world think of invading them and subjugating them? So, no matter how we look at it, a country’s educational budget should be larger than its defense budget. India’s allocation towards education has not reached even 6% of its budget, which appears to have become norm in most parts of the world. This is a sham. It must change. Sliding scale fees for parent that can afford: As a last resort, temporarily, even fees may be charged from parents who can afford, on a sliding scale. A few words about proposed curriculum: Ø Physical education must constitute an essential part of schooling. Ø Doing homework at the school itself. Ø All children should be bilingual – mother tongue (or state tongue) as well as English should be taught right from kindergarten. We need to see to it that all children are as fluent in English as in their mother tongue. This is necessary because we see in our everyday life deference shown to those with good command over English – they seem to enjoy the status of first class citizen. Even if some theories suggest education of everything up to fourth or fifth grade in the mother tongue of the children, we see in every day practice children from “English Medium Schools” getting ahead of the rest. This means that there must be something positive in the English Medium Schools that puts their children in a more favorable situation. It may lie in our slave mentality of being awed by those who speak English, or some such silly or more profound things. Be that as it may, the fact is that English speaking citizen appear to enjoy first class citizenship. Ø The goal of education should be production of first class citizen, not second class ones. We must understand that languages are for people, not the other way around. If mastery over English is likely to put one a step ahead, why should children of government schools be left a step behind? We must do whatever it takes to make all our children first class citizen. If it means making our mother tongue into an accessory language to learn and gain mastery over English, be it. We should make all text books bilingual books for all children up to around fourth grade – one page in English, with the opposite page containing its translation. After fourth grade, we could perhaps switch to the convention of studying science subjects only in English and humanities only in the mother tongue. It will insure their proficiency in both languages. There should be provision for tutorials for the small number of students needing extra help in understanding English. Moreover, all text books in English should also be translated in the regional languages so that a student has no difficulty in learning a subject matter due to language problem. Ø Last but not the least, we must include social service as one of the core curriculum subjects along side languages, science, math and physical education. Their peers, teachers, and others who had opportunities to interact with the students could do the evaluation. In addition, we should encourage creation of a pyramidal structure with the help of Bottom Up Successive Free Association, Evaluation and Representation (BUSFAER) described towards the end of this paper. Position of a student on the said pyramid may also be taken into account towards evaluating a student in the area of social service. One may question the need for teaching humanities in mother tongue of the student. They may say that products of English medium schools seem to be doing so well without mastering their mother tongues, why bother about teaching anything in one’s mother tongue or state language? The answer is that English medium schools may prepare students for multinational companies here and abroad, and also for Federal Government jobs. However, mother tongues and vernacular state languages are going to be around for a long time. And we need to prepare our students to be able to communicate with them intelligibly. They should not appear to be foreigners in their own land. Hence the necessity for not only being able to read one’s mother tongue, but also mastering it to the extent of fully expressing oneself in his or her mother tongue or state language. Curricular hours should include the following: · Mother tongue · English · Mathematics · Science · Humanities · Sports, athletic, games and any physical fitness oriented activities. · Social service · Mixed bag of extracurricular activities like computer applications, arts and crafts, music and dance, project work, library work, gardening, horticulture and agriculture, social work like taking care of the needy, cleaning up neighborhoods, tutoring and getting tutored, etc., including creative, constructive, imaginative, inventive, productive, beneficial activity that anyone can envision and attract enough students to such an activity. Extracurricular activities: Provisions should be made to extend the mixed bag hour into after schools hours for all students desirous of the same. Even adults should be able to attend these extracurricular activities. It will provide a chance of the adults to interact with children. Effort should be made to make the mixed-bag as the biggest attraction of schools. As they will not be compulsory for students, their quality will have to be of the heist order. Anybody who can attract students to learn anything or do any organized constructive or creative work can become a teacher for the extracurricular activities. They will be paid for the number of hours they can attract ten or more students voluntarily. Two parts of a class hour: Teacher intensive, & student intensive parts All classes other than physical fitness ones will be divided up into two parts: teacher intensive and student intensive parts. During the student intensive part any homework will be done. Any further help needed by students can be provided during the after school hour activities. Reduced teaching load for teachers towards their self-improvement As mentioned earlier, no class should consist of larger thirty students. Moreover, it will be good if one or two teaching assistants always assist teachers. Since teaching is very intensive activity, four contact hours should be considered to be a full-time activity for the teaching staff. Remunerations for less than four hours should be correspondingly prorated. Eventually teaching load of teachers should be further reduced for the sake of their training and self-improvement. Schools have to be made centers of excellence & cultural centers: When the above mentioned mixed bag of extracurricular activities including any creative, constructive, imaginative, inventive and beneficial activities that anyone can envision and attract enough students to such activities, the schools will be buzzing with activities all the time. In an atmosphere buzzing with activities mentioned above, schools may further be encouraged to become cultural centers providing opportunities for increased interaction and exchange of knowledge among community members including teachers via continuing adult education programs, making the schools centers for excellence, cooperation, fun and joy for all; and make all of them partners in creating a better, harmonious and vibrant society engaged in constant effort to learn, educate and improve all, most importantly, its youth. Parents and teachers associations would have to be active participants and in-charge of these centers of excellence than the education department bureaucrats. When schools become intellectual and cultural hubs of the community, teachers are less likely to play truant: It seems that currently many schools teachers don’t show up at all, in many others they send some proxies. Such delinquencies of duties are less likely to take place in an atmosphere where the schools become cultural centers of the society. When the schools no longer have a factory like atmosphere wherein teachers come for lecturing and grading students and go home tired and sick of misbehaving students, we would not find many truant teachers. If some do turn out to be bad apples, the parents and teachers associations should be able to take care of them, Criteria for retention, promotion and rewards for teachers A suitable mix of performance of students in objective tests, students’ evaluation of teachers, peer evaluation of teachers, parents’ evaluation of teachers, etc., should all be used in evaluating teachers and rewarding them suitably, particularly during the probationary period. Here is a chance for us to make an impact on world-wide education; let us not miss it! With all the hoopla about proliferation of Indians in the IT industry, and IITians being omni-present around the world, we have not created a system that has caught the imagination of the world. Here is a chance, we can become leaders in the field of education, with a simple system of computerized testing for higher education system as well as primary and secondary school system. Let us grab this opportunity and run with it. Otherwise someone or the other is going to get hold of it and may even become a monopoly in the arena of testing. I would not be very surprised if ETS (Educational Testing Service) that conducts SAT and various State Regents examinations picks up this idea and makes a lot of money. The vaunted institutions like IIT and IIM should be able to create the above-mentioned online examination system in less than a year and put themselves on the map of the world. For each of the courses, two or three professors may be assigned to a textbook they use for the course, should be good enough to do the job in less than a year, to get the whole thing started. At the same time, some database experts should create a good database system that would hold the said question banks in the system, create a new test set each time a request is made of it, and record the test score securely. Such a system will not only increase the capacity of the institutions of higher education to cope with the proposed increase in the student population, it will open the door to higher education to practically everyone in the world with enough will and determination to persevere and sweat it out and become proficient in a subject of their choice. Students from around the world will be able to take these computerized tests created in institutions with world-wide recognition. Proliferation of degrees based on objective tests is bound to have impact upon people available to do high quality research as well. If we want to systematize the process of educating vast masses of students going through educational system, we have to systematize, modernize and ease the process of calibrating and graduating them. The cumbersome subjective testing cannot cope with the huge number of students that need to be systematically calibrated and graduated. The only way to do it right is via automation with the help of computers. Just think of the enormous man & woman hours lost in invigilation of the written (subjective) tests, their evaluation and security. All of this can be systematized, smoothened and regularized with the help of round the year computerized testing at far fewer test-centers, with far fewer people involved in running those places. A good computerized system can also be used as a learning and teaching tool by the students and teachers. We would then be instrumental in destroying the monopoly of many of the developed countries as the Mecca of higher education. We would have truly made a transition into knowledge-society. Author: Dr. Satinath Choudhary Retired professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 115 West 238 Street Bronx, New York 10463 USA Phone: 718-548-5249 Email: satichou2@yahoo.com