Art Of Teaching

IS IT FAIR THAT THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HAS FAILED TILL DATE TO COME UP WITH AN APPROPRIATE MARKING SYSTEM FOR STUDENTS?

These questions are being asked by one and all.

‘Fair’ has got nothing to do with it. Frankly only little progenies huff and say, “It’s not fair!”, We need to understand the painful reality of COVID. The examinations are not being negated to show malice towards hardworking students, but because of a universal epidemic that has made it essential to close schools as a health safeguard, to save lives. If normal teaching can’t continue at present, then how can students assemble in large figures to take exams? Saving lives takes priority over students’ feelings and exams today.

Individuals are becoming extinct. Some of those who have died have been scarcely into their adolescences, Is that fair? So many children have became orphans. Is that Fair? Family after family have been totally wiped out, is that fair?

Every day, all over the world, awful things are happening to people who have not merited them in any way. No, that is not fair. But life does not come with assurances of anything, least of all an assurance of fairness, and we all are old enough to admit this.

Small children have some excuse for complaining, though many of them never do and take life in their stead. Adults surely have no such excuse. No exams will not be the end of students’ world. Everyone in the age group is in the same situation and they will all survive it but think will they survive the pandemic if precautions are thrown to the wind?

Sometimes it is natural that life does not give the rewards that we feel our efforts merit. It is not fair that people are working on a reduced income. It is not fair that many people have become homeless. Life is no longer fair for anybody. Cancelled exams honestly is the tiniest of the glitches right now.

 Do parents really want their wards to take exams now and deal with the very real possibility of becoming a victim of Covid 19? Would it not be better to take them later when it is much safer? Don’t lose patience please.

Do you think it is fair that thousands of people are dying who didn’t expect to die fairly yet, often without their family around them? Life is not at all fair, and the more readily we realize it, the better we can manage our lives.

The best answer is that there are lot of diverse ways to test students’ knowledge, and the finest way is to actually get a detailed picture of how well you students are learning and progressing, is not how much information you are managing to recall, but to use a blend of the many and varied methods. Give time to the Education Board to decide. Please remember that not all will be appropriate depending on your subject, teaching level, number of students etc. Even they are facing the covid situation for the first time.

They might comprise some or all of the following:

• Written examinations from memory
•  Open book exams
• Oral examinations (‘viva’)
• Debate and discussion
• Presentations and speeches
• Competitions and imaginative contests
• Appraisal of a student’s notes and work books
• Essay assignments
• Dissertations, projects and thesis

In my understanding it is hard to say which method is better than the other, because different testing methods work better or not as good depending on the individual student, and on the situation.

The best way to test students’ skills and aptitudes would be to plan the class outcomes in such a way that encompasses a real-life project and a real value for the specific outcomes. If the project outcomes are achieved, the students should get not only a good mark, but also real-life experience and contribution to the world and the society.

Do we always need to blame the government for the problem whereas in realness it is we the people who can turn the state of affairs around by ourselves?

We have been automated to blame the Government for everything. We forget that as we have rights in the same way we have duties. Parents do everything for their children never letting them to grow up in the real sense.

Adolescences detest their parents because they think the parents are the reason of all their fictional melodramatic anguishes.

Though it is a fact that a person can change their own reality, but the program just goes on and on from home to the nation.  If the individuals fail to evolve into self-awareness, they are going to blame their parents, and the government always.