Tuesday 15 October 2013

Semester system needs closer examination fundamental ‘reforms’ in education lack of enforcement of discipline

The semester system – one of the fundamental ‘reforms’ in education – has failed to bring the promised results mainly because of a lack of enforcement of discipline.

Complaints about indiscipline on the part of students and (few) teachers’ indifference at the Punjab University as well as other seats of higher learning are a routine affair.In the semester system, syllabus is divided into sessions and tests are conducted frequently to facilitate students to focus on quality instead of quantity. The students are supposed to be given prompt feedback so that they feel motivated or pressure to concentrate on their studies and improve their learning. However, any abiding good has yet to be seen as most graduates remain unimpressive and hardly justify the degrees they possess.

A major complaint is that many teachers do not take their classes regularly but ensure that their students have marked their attendance and they eventually sign it and claim the remunerations in self-support and evening classes.

Similarly, the academics are in the spotlight for delaying results of students on one pretext or another, thus, defeating the very purpose of the system.

“The grade lists sometimes are displayed after the lapse of almost two semesters,” a student complained.

“When students are not given feedback and grades at the end of the semester, they find little opportunity to improve,” admits a senior teacher.

The students studying in regular classes in general and those admitted to self-support and evening classes in particular remain unmotivated and fail to achieve the desired level of learning.

It is a common observation that irrational strength of students in evening classes, which sometimes exceeds 60 students in each class, hinders the environment of learning in classroom. The visiting faculty may be justified in their claim that they even
fail to recognise all students even by the end of a semester.

Though (a percentage of) attendance is a basic requirement to be eligible to sit in a semester examination, the condition seems hardly a deterrent for the happy-go-lucky type who bunk classes and either enter classrooms in the last moments of lecture
(when they get SMS from their class fellows) or simply rely on proxy call.

Another aspect of the semester system, which is ruining the whole concept, is the internal examination wherein most of the time students persuade their respective teachers to give them good marks. It not only happens when students do not perform
well in examinations but even the lowest scorers believe in the ‘trick’.

Sharing his experience, a teacher told Dawn: “A number of students persuade me (in person as well as through repeated phone calls) and ask for good marks. When informed that they are declared fail and stand no chance of being accommodated, the response of the importunate ones is interesting: ‘I know I am fail but, Sir, you have the authority to change my fate’.”

According to another teacher, when an academic agrees to give pass marks, the students ask for even higher score to have an improved GPA. Every student wants he or she should be given at least 70 per cent marks for a good GPA, he says.

Asked why the students did not concentrate on their studies, a teacher said, “each student has a thousand and one excuses.”

The remarks of a BS (Honours) student hit the nail on the head. Said he: “I am surprised to see that students keep running after their teachers to get good marks. But the most shocking part is that they are eventually given good marks.

“The semester system has become a legal way to earn a ‘fake degree’ because most graduates just fail to prove their
credentials, as their degrees (and GPAs) claim, when they appear for an interview to get a job,” a visiting faculty member said.

“The nation is paying a high social cost because of these fake degrees and pseudo-graduates as the lack required skill and competence,” another teacher said.

Meanwhile, there are different cases reported in universities wherein teachers had exploited their students especially girls. An inquiry was marked by the vice chancellor on a written complaint by a student who stated that her result was stopped by his teacher for no valid reason. The inquiry is yet to be completed.

The teachers as well as studious students demand that the PU administration enforce the semester system regulations in letter and spirit.

* * * * * *

THE Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education administration has decided to defy the Punjab higher education department secretary as it is going ahead with its plan of declaring the matriculation supplementary examination for 2011 results on Monday (today).

The Lahore board had finalised the supplementary examination results and was ready to declare them on Dec 15. However, the HED secretary asked the board administration to hold the results and wait for other seven boards to prepare their results.
The board did wait for a couple of days and then decided to declare the results, viewing that it would help students seek admission to intermediate classes immediately and save their one precious year.

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