The decision to bring back October /November session for exams in the Kashmir valley of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory (J-K UT), is reportedly on the cards. Thorough understanding of all the aspects should inform the measure. Notably, the recently elected education ministry of J-K deserves appreciation for taking notice of this all-important matter: a suitable exam session — November or March.
Education is holistic. That scholars, philosophers, educationists and learned teachers do recognize through their teachings, writings and speeches. Loud and clear is the message—there is education beyond textbooks and lecture halls. Thus, nurture plays a pivotal and lasting role in shaping children as our future and helping them confront the challenges of life outside their classrooms.
What is noteworthy is that March session witnesses children learning by themselves during winter vacations. This unaided learning challenges them and they accordingly plan their winter studies, leading to their mental growth and practical experience of facing a challenge. Such children later on can certainly prove as responsible and hardworking citizens— a lofty goal of education.
Secondly, March session for exams practically closes the door on winter tuition culture here. It is a known fact that students would flock to the “coaching centers” immediately after exams to secure admission when October/November exam session was in vogue. Even before the results were out. The coaching unfortunately rendered school education literally irrelevant for people.
And remarkably the March session saves lakhs of hard-earned income of the people preferring to send their children to such coaching centers — at the expense of quality education. The saved income promotes the purchasing power of the people, enabling them to spend somewhere else. A question: why create an environment conducive for winter coaching to flourish instead of raising the level of our teachers at government schools to make academic coaching unnecessary? Pertinently, coaching exposes children to exploitation.
Additionally, holding exams in March is student-friendly. With the harsh winter period out, the students feel at ease in writing their exams. The vacations bestow upon them certain valuable opportunities to smoothly prepare their contents for the exams.
October/ November session arguably used to be anything but student-oriented before the orders to replace it came to the fore in 2022. Accepted that students somehow readied themselves to sit in the exam (in the November session), but it is common knowledge that cramming and copying undermined the process, raising questions over the very purpose of conducting the exams. True, these wrongs cannot be ruled out in any examination session with certainty but their prospects are little when students get enough preparation time. That March session does well.
On being asked about their preferences, 8 out of 10 school children asserted that March session is far better for them. “It allows us to prepare well due to around three-month long preparation time [November session comes with no preparation time]; it enables us to complete our syllabi with ease and comfort and it protects us from the harsh winter tuition torture”, scores of students told this author.
Moreover, March session significantly bridges the ever growing gap in academic progress between the haves and have-nots. As this exam session has almost wiped out the coaching culture for academic classes during winters, schools see it a legal binding to complete the prescribed syllabi before winter vacations are announced. Thus students from the high and low income families benefit uniformly, ruling out an academic edge to the children with a stronger financial background. That is good for democratic equality.
Most importantly, March session bears the promise of increasing the attendance of students at schools. Since students do not need to attend coaching centers in winter (being time for preparing for an exam), we find a healthy rise in their attendance at schools. Should exams remain in March, schools are likely to better their academic scenario and consequently students could prefer school classrooms over jam-packed coaching classrooms. Thus, student attendance and enrollment can pick up which can augur well for the educational institutions.
In their book “Education in India”, Padma Ramachandran and Vasantha Ramkumar say, ” Our concept of education and hence of educational institutions has undergone a great change in recent years. Education is no more limited to the building up of knowledge skills and character of the students and hence educational institutions cannot be mere ivory towers with total academic freedom to do what they like with their programmes. Education now has to have social concerns, for the employment of the youth and for the value system to be inculcated in keeping with the ideals enshrined in our constitution. Students and institutions are to be involved in study, work and services related to national development which has come to be called the third dimension of education”.
Along with considering the change of the exam session, one key reform of our educational set up can be a uniform transfer policy for all categories of teachers; ReT “teachers” included on priority. Transfer largely ends defiance, non-cooperation, confrontation, self-serving attitude and demotivation of an employee.
Merging the schools to have a single school at a village with enrollment of 80 to 90 students must be preferred. Thus a school of any habitation having enrollment under 80 should be merged with a nearby school — even upto 3 kilometres. The staff can be shifted to the neediest schools; the vacant buildings can be repurposed.
Also school administration must undergo a change. Replacing it with expert hands can undo root and brach the toxic effect of the local dominance of the teaching hands impeding the academic journey there. The enrollment drains; public turns away and the image of schools tarnishes.
(Author is RK columnist and teacher by profession. Feedback: [email protected])
