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The exam system in our schools in the early 1950s was horrific.
From 1st Form (Class VI) to 5th Form (Class 10) we had to appear in Quarterlies, Half-Yearlies, and Annuals which had ratings like 10%, 20%, and 70% respectively. And we had to pass in all the subjects at one go...no mercy there. However, the Question Papers were set at the District Level and evaluated by our own teachers in our own school.
If anyone failed in any subject (< 35%), he was declared Failed and had to stay back in the same class and attend school once again. And he had just 3 successive attempts to clear all the subjects at one go and get promoted to the next class. And so on.
Here is an anecdote:
In 2008 my son got married at Nellore and I had invited to the function a rich Reddy (Mr MR) who used to kindly look after my flat in Nellore during my decade-long absence. And he was kind enough to show up at the marriage pandal, and I introduced him to our new bride's father (Mr MP). They looked at each other and smiled...a weak smile of recognition from their remote past. And Mr MP asked Mr MR:
"Were we not classmates in the VR High School in our Class 9, decades ago?"
"Yes and no...I started as your senior and then became your classmate and then your junior and then gave it all up and went back to paddy cultivation and grew rich...both my sons are however Engineers in the IT in Bangalore"
As soon as we reached our SSLC (Class 11, 6th Form), things changed dramatically. The exams were at the State Level and the evaluation of answer-scripts were outsourced to anonymous other schools. And our Registers were sent up to the State Education Commissioner and arrived late in April a month after our exams were through in March. And our marks in each subject were written up on the relevant page. Still, we had to pass in each subject to be declared eligible for our college studies.
If we failed in our first attempt, we didn't have to go back to school. We could appear in a Supplementary Exam from home and try to pass, once again in all subjects at one go, in the coming September. If we failed again, we could reappear in the coming March. If we failed again in March, we could appear in the coming September ad infinitum...no limit on the number of our attempts. This system was cutely called the MSM System (March-September-March), an acronym that was borrowed from the MSM Railways prevalent then...Madras South Mahratta Railways.
If the SSLC Register got filled up in all its 16 pages and still the student couldn't clear it, an additional SSLC Register was issued as a pin-up add-on. Much like Passports.
I know of a prodigious student who got centum in all subjects except English in which he got 20% and was declared failed. On his September attempt he got centum once again in all the subjects except English in which he scored 10%...which got reduced to 5% in his third attempt. He gave it up and took up chess and soon became a State Player. And then started a Chess Coaching Institute and mints money.
Another girl who I know well couldn't clear her SSLC in her first 5 attempts and so joined as a Junior Teacher in a Multi-Purpose school and did well and forgot all about her SSLC till after 20 years when suddenly the new Government announced that she couldn't get promoted to the next cadre unless she clears her long-pending SSLC exam.
She was a mother by then to a daughter studying in college who offered to coach her. She declined and appeared in the next September on her own and passed gloriously...she was a Sewing Teacher who became an expert by then in sewing up hidden stuff in her dresses:
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The exam system in our schools in the early 1950s was horrific.
From 1st Form (Class VI) to 5th Form (Class 10) we had to appear in Quarterlies, Half-Yearlies, and Annuals which had ratings like 10%, 20%, and 70% respectively. And we had to pass in all the subjects at one go...no mercy there. However, the Question Papers were set at the District Level and evaluated by our own teachers in our own school.
If anyone failed in any subject (< 35%), he was declared Failed and had to stay back in the same class and attend school once again. And he had just 3 successive attempts to clear all the subjects at one go and get promoted to the next class. And so on.
Here is an anecdote:
In 2008 my son got married at Nellore and I had invited to the function a rich Reddy (Mr MR) who used to kindly look after my flat in Nellore during my decade-long absence. And he was kind enough to show up at the marriage pandal, and I introduced him to our new bride's father (Mr MP). They looked at each other and smiled...a weak smile of recognition from their remote past. And Mr MP asked Mr MR:
"Were we not classmates in the VR High School in our Class 9, decades ago?"
"Yes and no...I started as your senior and then became your classmate and then your junior and then gave it all up and went back to paddy cultivation and grew rich...both my sons are however Engineers in the IT in Bangalore"
As soon as we reached our SSLC (Class 11, 6th Form), things changed dramatically. The exams were at the State Level and the evaluation of answer-scripts were outsourced to anonymous other schools. And our Registers were sent up to the State Education Commissioner and arrived late in April a month after our exams were through in March. And our marks in each subject were written up on the relevant page. Still, we had to pass in each subject to be declared eligible for our college studies.
If we failed in our first attempt, we didn't have to go back to school. We could appear in a Supplementary Exam from home and try to pass, once again in all subjects at one go, in the coming September. If we failed again, we could reappear in the coming March. If we failed again in March, we could appear in the coming September ad infinitum...no limit on the number of our attempts. This system was cutely called the MSM System (March-September-March), an acronym that was borrowed from the MSM Railways prevalent then...Madras South Mahratta Railways.
If the SSLC Register got filled up in all its 16 pages and still the student couldn't clear it, an additional SSLC Register was issued as a pin-up add-on. Much like Passports.
I know of a prodigious student who got centum in all subjects except English in which he got 20% and was declared failed. On his September attempt he got centum once again in all the subjects except English in which he scored 10%...which got reduced to 5% in his third attempt. He gave it up and took up chess and soon became a State Player. And then started a Chess Coaching Institute and mints money.
Another girl who I know well couldn't clear her SSLC in her first 5 attempts and so joined as a Junior Teacher in a Multi-Purpose school and did well and forgot all about her SSLC till after 20 years when suddenly the new Government announced that she couldn't get promoted to the next cadre unless she clears her long-pending SSLC exam.
She was a mother by then to a daughter studying in college who offered to coach her. She declined and appeared in the next September on her own and passed gloriously...she was a Sewing Teacher who became an expert by then in sewing up hidden stuff in her dresses:
I am now told that, in our AP State, passing in all exams up to Class XII has become irrelevant...you have to only appear if you wish to and get automatically promoted provided you satisfy attendance norms like 70% (most of it by the well-known proxy-system).
Looks like the Dream of the Ideal State of Education is here already:
...As a grandfather I view his unseen masters as complicated, sinister beings who cannot be trusted. I keep my ears to the ground to find out if there has been any incident at his school. I was opposed to the system of being prescribed a set of books by an anonymous soulless body of textbook prescribers, and of being stamped good or bad as a result of such studies. My natural aversion to academic education was further strengthened when I came across an essay by Rabindranath Tagore on education. It confirmed my own precocious conclusions on the subject. I liked to be free to read what I pleased and not to be examined at all...
...By a renowned writer of English fiction who failed in English quoting an NL in Literature who 'was also given Bengali-language lessons in anatomy, drawing, English language (Tagore's least favorite subject)' ...
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