Was it Shakespeare or Jefferson who said ‘A fool thinks himself as wise, while a wise man knows himself as a fool’? Who ever it was, he should have added, ‘and the wisest man would resort to the most foolish actions’. One such absurd act was the suggestion to do away with the Class 10 board exams in the schools. Another was the cranky ‘percentile’ system introduced to grade school students last year.
The percentile is stupid because it doesn’t rate a student to a common standard; a standard which would stay uniform over a period of time. The percentile is basically an exercise in finding averages of a class of students and then mark them as better or worse than their peers. If the whole crop are uniformly stupid, an imbecile could even top the class. The old system of marks was better - at one glance, anyone could instantly grasp how good or bad a particular student is.
The Education Minister in one stroke made the ‘percentiles’ the order of the battle, just because the Americans and Europeans do it. What he didn’t realise was the Indians who’ve studied without percentiles do better than Americans in GMAT! Else, the logic seems to be that since we aim to equal Americans and Western Europeans in everything, our students should also score low in GMAT, equalling the Americans!
:-P
Even more foolish, the Minister has issued another diktat - that there would be no more Class 10 exams from this year. What he probably forgot is that (any) foolish action has an uncanny habit of being shown up for what it is - idiotic - that too sooner than later. Even before the wise man’s ‘ass backwards’ brainwave to abolish the exams go into effect comes the bombshell - Test taking is the best way to Really Learn [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss].
The latest study released yesterday shows that writing tests is better than repeated studying, generally accepted back home as ‘the’ sure-shot way to learn.
It also proved to be better than concept mapping, a new craze doing the rounds in Chennai, with some fancy sounding names and cooked up training courses.
The study proved an oft stated maxim - that ‘one-study-session’ alone is not good enough - is correct; the students who studied that way scored the least.
So what now Mr. Education Minister? Would you eat your words and rescind the order or pull a fancy press conference and deny that the study ever reached such conclusions? Or do one better and call the conclusions wrong? Like you called the CAG report on loss to exchequer on 2G allotment as wrong?
8-0
My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Oops! Guys! Minister! It was really unintentional. I mean, I didn’t remember that the Beagle Boys have numbers on their dress and they all start with ‘176-000’. Thank God it doesn’t say Crores!’
0;-D
The percentile is stupid because it doesn’t rate a student to a common standard; a standard which would stay uniform over a period of time. The percentile is basically an exercise in finding averages of a class of students and then mark them as better or worse than their peers. If the whole crop are uniformly stupid, an imbecile could even top the class. The old system of marks was better - at one glance, anyone could instantly grasp how good or bad a particular student is.
The Education Minister in one stroke made the ‘percentiles’ the order of the battle, just because the Americans and Europeans do it. What he didn’t realise was the Indians who’ve studied without percentiles do better than Americans in GMAT! Else, the logic seems to be that since we aim to equal Americans and Western Europeans in everything, our students should also score low in GMAT, equalling the Americans!
:-P
Even more foolish, the Minister has issued another diktat - that there would be no more Class 10 exams from this year. What he probably forgot is that (any) foolish action has an uncanny habit of being shown up for what it is - idiotic - that too sooner than later. Even before the wise man’s ‘ass backwards’ brainwave to abolish the exams go into effect comes the bombshell - Test taking is the best way to Really Learn [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss].
The latest study released yesterday shows that writing tests is better than repeated studying, generally accepted back home as ‘the’ sure-shot way to learn.
It also proved to be better than concept mapping, a new craze doing the rounds in Chennai, with some fancy sounding names and cooked up training courses.
The study proved an oft stated maxim - that ‘one-study-session’ alone is not good enough - is correct; the students who studied that way scored the least.
So what now Mr. Education Minister? Would you eat your words and rescind the order or pull a fancy press conference and deny that the study ever reached such conclusions? Or do one better and call the conclusions wrong? Like you called the CAG report on loss to exchequer on 2G allotment as wrong?
8-0
My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Oops! Guys! Minister! It was really unintentional. I mean, I didn’t remember that the Beagle Boys have numbers on their dress and they all start with ‘176-000’. Thank God it doesn’t say Crores!’
0;-D
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