****************************************************************************************************************************
...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. After failing in the university entrance examination, I had a lot of time, since I could appear for the next year's examination without attending classes...My failure at the examination, and seeing my classmates marching ahead, induced a sense of pessimism and martyrdom which, in a strange manner, seemed to have deepened my sensibilities...
...RKN in My Days
It is almost a century since Tagore won his Nobel. Here is the wiki-quote on his Visva-Bharati University:
"Visva-Bharati University (Bengali: বিশ্বভারতী বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) is a Central University for research and teaching in India, located in the twin towns of Santiniketan and Sriniketan in the state of West Bengal. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India. In its initial years Tagore expressed his dissatisfaction with the word 'university', since university translates to Vishva-Vidyalaya, which is smaller in scope than Visva Bharati. Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, in 1951, the institution was given the status of a university and was renamed Visva Bharati University."
I guess RKN would have called this conversion an instance of 'vandalism' (I half disagree):
...Those that love calendar pictures will not rest till they cover the walls of their homes with all the calendars issued by all the business concerns in the country; a lover of group photos will cover every inch of space in his home with portraits of all the friends and relations that ever came his way; the organiser who is determined to sell space in the music hall will ever hang placards announcing the virtues of asafoetida or soap on every pillar there, and the man who is bent upon painting his home deep blue and illuminating it with green light must have his way. When confronted with such acts we gently avert our looks and mumble indistinctly rather than shout our views from housetops. It is in the interests of harmonious relations. It would be unseemly otherwise. But the line must be drawn somewhere. When the vandal emerges from the privacy of his home or immediate surroundings and attempts at improving nature or art on a large, public scale, then it is the time for us to start an uninhibited 'down with---' campaign against him....
...RKN in Next Sunday
By now I guess VBU is like any other XYU as far as examination system goes...unless our current Minister who has brought in a revolution in everything academic cancels all exams altogether...Amen!
Well, let us admit that not everyone of us is as gifted as Tagore and RKN...we just can't make a living out of our loving. So, exams, in some shape or the other are a necessary evil...if you do away with the School, College, and University Exams, you still have to appear in exams of worse shape, like IAS, GRE, GATE, CAT, MAT and RAT...followed by Aptitude Tests, Tech Tests, GDs, Vivas, and take a chance of 1 out of say a million aspirants...University or IIT Degrees (with or without exams) reduce this ratio to say, 1 out of a hundred...I am speaking from experience...I accompanied my son recently when he wanted a job-change...
While I admit that exams are a necessary evil, I am convinced that Spot Tests, Surprise Tests, Quizzes and such monstrosities are unnecessary evils. We at AU had NO written or practical exam in our Honors Subject (Physics in my case) for all of 4 years. Well, we did have half-yearly and annual exams but you may fail in them miserably or take sick-leave and still you won't be detained till the Final 4th Year when you had to appear in 6 Theory Papers and 4 Lab Tests.
And we had 3 full months of Preparation Holidays before our Finals.
So, what did I do all those (4 wonderful years - 3 grueling months)? You guessed right...reading English novels, watching soulful movies, combing the Vizagh Beach, gabbing with friends unendingly...in short developing a Personality, which strangely helped me in my job at IIT KGP...Tagore wrote a wonderful piece titled: Personality.
I heard of the minor evil called the Tutorial at IIT. That's fine. Great fun solving problems. But in 1965, when India was still in the wake of the British System of Education that had nurtured a Ramanujan, students at IIT KGP had lots of free time to develop their personality. Till some upstarts (sorry) returned from the US and dictated that what is required is a Semester System with Unannounced Quizzes, Continuous Assessment, Spot Tests (when the Teacher has not prepared for his lecture due to a tiff with his wife last night)...and doling out Grades instead of good old Marks. And how were we asked to grade?...Simple...award marks and then look up the Table...no leeway anywhere...Stupid (sorry)!
Let me tell you why I got pissed off with Spot Tests and always considered them skulduggery:
As I told you a million times, I had the unfortunate 'position' of the Headmaster's Son in my Village School. I detested it because it came in the way of my relations with my classmates, teachers, and the public in general.
We were 7 siblings, 6 of them girls and I almost a boy (you can't be a full-blooded boy in a tiny household with such a skewed sex-ratio). Everyday, one or the other of us kids would fall sick and it was my duty as a brother to take them to the local hospital run by a nice LMP Doctor by name Ishwar Reddy. What was most nice of him? Well, he had a wonderful son by name Raghu who was my best friend...he was a 'gentleman' not used to the rough and tumble of the Village Street (he came from Nellore town). So, I was his local guardian sort of.
One day when I took two of my younger sisters to the hospital, Dr Ishwar Reddy called me aside, and gave me a 'question paper' and an 'answer script' (luckily in English) and a pencil and asked me to sit down on the chair opposite him (shooing waiting patients) and 'write' the exam while his compounder invigilated...my sisters were escorted home by the Watchman.
I was about 10 then and the Question Paper looked easy and I finished the 2-hour exam in half an hour.
And he went through it and said: "Good! You may go!"
I returned home and told my mom what happened at the hospital. She made discreet inquiries and got to know from Mrs Ishwar Reddy that Raghu, their son, was reading 4 hours a day everyday while they saw me from across their fence picking up wayside stones and pelting them at the branches of their fence-side guava tree trying to hit and collect the fallen unripe fruit...all the time.
So, her husband suspected that all our teachers in the school favored the HM's son and awarded 80% in all subjects while Raghu got just pass marks (40%) despite his sincere efforts and coaching by his parents.
So, that Surprise Test was conceived to remove their doubt...
DAMN!
I never ever took any surprise test for anyone during my entire life...if I had my way I would even have dispensed with all Tests...
...Posted by Ishani
****************************************************************************************************************************************
...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. After failing in the university entrance examination, I had a lot of time, since I could appear for the next year's examination without attending classes...My failure at the examination, and seeing my classmates marching ahead, induced a sense of pessimism and martyrdom which, in a strange manner, seemed to have deepened my sensibilities...
...RKN in My Days
It is almost a century since Tagore won his Nobel. Here is the wiki-quote on his Visva-Bharati University:
"Visva-Bharati University (Bengali: বিশ্বভারতী বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) is a Central University for research and teaching in India, located in the twin towns of Santiniketan and Sriniketan in the state of West Bengal. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India. In its initial years Tagore expressed his dissatisfaction with the word 'university', since university translates to Vishva-Vidyalaya, which is smaller in scope than Visva Bharati. Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, in 1951, the institution was given the status of a university and was renamed Visva Bharati University."
I guess RKN would have called this conversion an instance of 'vandalism' (I half disagree):
...Those that love calendar pictures will not rest till they cover the walls of their homes with all the calendars issued by all the business concerns in the country; a lover of group photos will cover every inch of space in his home with portraits of all the friends and relations that ever came his way; the organiser who is determined to sell space in the music hall will ever hang placards announcing the virtues of asafoetida or soap on every pillar there, and the man who is bent upon painting his home deep blue and illuminating it with green light must have his way. When confronted with such acts we gently avert our looks and mumble indistinctly rather than shout our views from housetops. It is in the interests of harmonious relations. It would be unseemly otherwise. But the line must be drawn somewhere. When the vandal emerges from the privacy of his home or immediate surroundings and attempts at improving nature or art on a large, public scale, then it is the time for us to start an uninhibited 'down with---' campaign against him....
...RKN in Next Sunday
By now I guess VBU is like any other XYU as far as examination system goes...unless our current Minister who has brought in a revolution in everything academic cancels all exams altogether...Amen!
Well, let us admit that not everyone of us is as gifted as Tagore and RKN...we just can't make a living out of our loving. So, exams, in some shape or the other are a necessary evil...if you do away with the School, College, and University Exams, you still have to appear in exams of worse shape, like IAS, GRE, GATE, CAT, MAT and RAT...followed by Aptitude Tests, Tech Tests, GDs, Vivas, and take a chance of 1 out of say a million aspirants...University or IIT Degrees (with or without exams) reduce this ratio to say, 1 out of a hundred...I am speaking from experience...I accompanied my son recently when he wanted a job-change...
While I admit that exams are a necessary evil, I am convinced that Spot Tests, Surprise Tests, Quizzes and such monstrosities are unnecessary evils. We at AU had NO written or practical exam in our Honors Subject (Physics in my case) for all of 4 years. Well, we did have half-yearly and annual exams but you may fail in them miserably or take sick-leave and still you won't be detained till the Final 4th Year when you had to appear in 6 Theory Papers and 4 Lab Tests.
And we had 3 full months of Preparation Holidays before our Finals.
So, what did I do all those (4 wonderful years - 3 grueling months)? You guessed right...reading English novels, watching soulful movies, combing the Vizagh Beach, gabbing with friends unendingly...in short developing a Personality, which strangely helped me in my job at IIT KGP...Tagore wrote a wonderful piece titled: Personality.
I heard of the minor evil called the Tutorial at IIT. That's fine. Great fun solving problems. But in 1965, when India was still in the wake of the British System of Education that had nurtured a Ramanujan, students at IIT KGP had lots of free time to develop their personality. Till some upstarts (sorry) returned from the US and dictated that what is required is a Semester System with Unannounced Quizzes, Continuous Assessment, Spot Tests (when the Teacher has not prepared for his lecture due to a tiff with his wife last night)...and doling out Grades instead of good old Marks. And how were we asked to grade?...Simple...award marks and then look up the Table...no leeway anywhere...Stupid (sorry)!
Let me tell you why I got pissed off with Spot Tests and always considered them skulduggery:
As I told you a million times, I had the unfortunate 'position' of the Headmaster's Son in my Village School. I detested it because it came in the way of my relations with my classmates, teachers, and the public in general.
We were 7 siblings, 6 of them girls and I almost a boy (you can't be a full-blooded boy in a tiny household with such a skewed sex-ratio). Everyday, one or the other of us kids would fall sick and it was my duty as a brother to take them to the local hospital run by a nice LMP Doctor by name Ishwar Reddy. What was most nice of him? Well, he had a wonderful son by name Raghu who was my best friend...he was a 'gentleman' not used to the rough and tumble of the Village Street (he came from Nellore town). So, I was his local guardian sort of.
One day when I took two of my younger sisters to the hospital, Dr Ishwar Reddy called me aside, and gave me a 'question paper' and an 'answer script' (luckily in English) and a pencil and asked me to sit down on the chair opposite him (shooing waiting patients) and 'write' the exam while his compounder invigilated...my sisters were escorted home by the Watchman.
I was about 10 then and the Question Paper looked easy and I finished the 2-hour exam in half an hour.
And he went through it and said: "Good! You may go!"
I returned home and told my mom what happened at the hospital. She made discreet inquiries and got to know from Mrs Ishwar Reddy that Raghu, their son, was reading 4 hours a day everyday while they saw me from across their fence picking up wayside stones and pelting them at the branches of their fence-side guava tree trying to hit and collect the fallen unripe fruit...all the time.
So, her husband suspected that all our teachers in the school favored the HM's son and awarded 80% in all subjects while Raghu got just pass marks (40%) despite his sincere efforts and coaching by his parents.
So, that Surprise Test was conceived to remove their doubt...
DAMN!
I never ever took any surprise test for anyone during my entire life...if I had my way I would even have dispensed with all Tests...
...Posted by Ishani
****************************************************************************************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment