On HS and HSS Education-open request to Kerala Education Minister

The Minster of Education, Govt of Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram. 695001


Sir,
I refer to the question paper pattern of the science subjects examinations of Higher Secondary course in Kerala.

First, I do not welcome the idea mooted by the new educationists that the question papers should be application or problem oriented. This I say because in schools the students are not given any proper understanding of the basic subject by the teachers. This is primarily because of the low standards of the students and the lack of time the teachers get to spend with the students. The students without proper basic knowledge fail to comprehend questions in the examination and hence their performance is poor. The new method of liberalised valuation is a never substitute for the loss of the students in their class rooms. The present method of liberalised valuation is a cruelty to bright students. Give a proper syllabus and ask direct questions based on the syllabus, is the proper way of testing. And, of course a few application oriented questions can be included. Instead at present all questions are made application oriented so that ordinary students find it often difficult to answer well in the examination.
For instance, this year’s Higher Secondary Examination of Physics paper contained a good many application oriented questions. The purpose of asking these questions is dubious. One of my teacher-friends has the opinion that only students with Entrance Examination training can answer these questions. Those with no such training certainly fail in the examination unless your department so decides to give full credit to all answers whether correct or not.

Second point is: what is wrong in calling students’ score as marks. Interestingly, now in every question paper it is said as ‘scores’ instead of ‘marks’. If one says the age-old word ‘marks’ what on earth stands against it. I firmly believe that in Kerala the educationalists still failed to grasp the actual problem. It shows how distant they are with the real issue on the ground with regards of education. This is a perception issue which was badly managed by your educationalists. .

I would also like to bring your notice that the parents are confused on the matter of School and HS education. Many of them are thinking to transfer their students to CBSE and ISC schools were the education is more meaningful. So I request the minister to be more open and willing to accept ideas and feedback from parents and other unbiased educationalists. I am sure that many experienced teachers would agree with me on the state of affairs of HS examination, its question paper pattern and evaluation. The mode of liberalised valuation would throw away the importance of education. The system of asking twisted questions would create revulsion among students towards lively subjects like physics


Yours faithfully,
K A Solaman