Thursday, October 16, 2008

Teachers' writing exams?


Foreword: This blog is a purely personal opinion which does not in any way intends to undermine the authority or question any ones capabilities. The blog does not knowingly or unknowingly intend to hurt any ones sentiments.

During the recently concluded mid-sems a very strange question was put up by one of the invigilators as we were about begin writing our exams,

‘While we write our exams, why doesn’t the teacher who made the paper write the exam along with us, under same circumstances?’ .

At that time I was not willing to answer it because I had to write exam without letting the horses of my imagination run wild. (any way I couldn’t have answered it as question paper just has knocked me down and I had to channel my resources towards the joint effort examination, to keep me afloat)

Just think over it for a while..... I realized why not?

Now before I say anything further, I want to make it very clear that my intention is not at all to question the knowledge of the teacher nor do I doubt his capabilities, but wouldn’t it be of great help for the students that they would get to know what exactly was expected from them and at the same time provide an answer to their usual grievances that paper was too lengthy or too difficult etc. Moreover the teacher is their through the entire examination duration as an invigilators.

Another thing that came to my mind was, of late quite a few universities displayed the answer sheets of the toppers in public, so that other can understand what was expected and how different was their answer. Such initiatives can be of great help for the students.

Most of the prestigious universities have mechanisms for the assessment of teachers where, they are assessed by the students, with an intent to enhance teacher student co-ordination so both students as well as the teachers understand each other’s aspiration, compatibility expectations.