By Manoj Kumar Karna
The terms ‘evaluation’ and ‘measurement’ are relative. The person who has not been the student of education stream in Nepalese context may mean both terms as same but the truth is different. Evaluation is a greater term in the meaning whereas measurement is like its unit. They are just like book and booklet. Referring to Ralph W. Tyler, Swayam Prakash JBR and others define ‘measurement’ in Curriculum and Evaluation as: ‘According to rule, measurement is the assignment of numerals’ (2071 BS: 160). These authors do not find much difference between educationists Tyler and S. Stevens in the definition of ‘measurement’ because they focus on ‘numerals and according to rule’. Likewise, these very authors recall Tyler and other educationists who define ‘evaluation’ in their same aforementioned book. For example, Tyler understands the ‘evaluation’ is the determination of the degree to which the educational goals are the extent to which instructional objectives are achieved by pupils (166). These assumptions of the academicians draw the sharp differential line between ‘measurement’ and ‘evaluation’. Hence, conducting or participating an ‘examination’ in written or oral form is just a part of ‘evaluation’, that is to say, the examination is just a ‘measurement’ of a student but it is not a ‘full and final’ measurement. For full and final measurement, a student has to participate in different measurements throughout the semester or fixed periodic time like a class presentation, writing a term paper, quiz, midterm test, field visit, group discussion in the live class and so on. Like many other foreign universities, the Nepali universities including Tribhuwan University (TU) are facing the problems how to conduct the final examination either in a semester or annual system to qualify the students for a further year of the study.
The government has announced the enrolment of the student for a new session and also conducting the final examination from coming 17 August 2020. To enrol the student by ignoring public health is not so difficult but to conduct a massive examination on the campus level is not so easy. It needs full preparation of the student physically and mentally to participate in the final examination. In the case of TU, some student leaders claim that many students have not carried their textbooks to their home while leaving the capital city Kathmandu or nearby city where they were temporarily living on rent for higher studies. They also claim that when the mass students return to their room after long route vehicles resume from 17 August, their house lords may not allow them easily to enter the room. In such panic-stricken mental condition, a student cannot write anything in the answer sheet amidst their course is incomplete. So, these are the talks of the traditional method of examination system to ‘evaluate’ the student after the end of the semester or academic annual session. Considering the mid semesters, that is before the final semester, to evaluate the student through their many other activities mentioned above will be easy to upgrade the students for next semester but what TU and other universities are facing is ‘how to examine of the final semester or final year at least of any level’.
While studying the technical courses like engineering and medicine and also the course like chartered accountants, many foreign universities like Indian technical universities have already conducted the online examinations by fixing time and home-town centres of the students and even they have already allowed the degrees of pass out. Their question forms are enhanced and have been framed for a particular specific period to ‘measure’ the student without a claim of others. To have such things possible, a university’s teachers must have followed the other forms of measuring the students in the class during semester like a class presentation, writing a term paper, quiz, midterm test, field visit, group discussion in the live class and so on. Equally, the students must have followed these steps honestly and the access of the student and teachers to the online class must-have. The colleges or universities of Nepal also which would have followed these steps honestly and sharply, and their students capable to have access to the online class easily can conduct the pattern of ‘final evaluation’ to allow the degree of any level but it is doubtful in the case of Nepali universities and all faculties. In such case, just following the track of foreign universities to conduct the examination and ‘allow’ the certificate may create suspicion over ‘quality’ of the student and hence, their degree may not get validity in the world. What Nepali universities will improve their systems of measuring the students during semester strictly and what the federal government is promising to provide the access of students to the internet and online class are the matters of future, the current problem is how to ‘evaluate the Nepali students finally with global validity’ in the examination in the tradition they have followed along with their teacher. This is mandatory for the related parties in Nepal to realise that without bringing change in the habit of a teacher to follow all forms of measuring the students in the class by hook or crook and also the government keeping its promise of providing access of students to the online class is going to be now irrelevant in the world. This is a very serious question on the capability of the government, especially the capacity of the education minister during the global pandemic of the Covid-19 or other such potential in the future.
The columnist suggests the following ways which may be suitable for the concerning entities and people: i) the students can be asked to participate in the final traditional examination of any semester or level of course in the premise of nearby campus as home town centre in and maintaining the social distance; ii) if the mass is big, the students can be called for participation shift wise or lot wise but their question paper will be different; iii) the students may use social distance in the class or on the ground for taking examination; iv) In the case of semester classes, the question paper can be set for short time period by framing different forms of questions prescribed by the course nature, for example, instead of 60 marks of theory, one can set of 30 marks also and what the students secure the marks can be mentioned in double form or equivalent ratios in their certificate; v) the question papers can be sent to the official internet/e-mail address of the campus or campus chief or campus’s examination section chief staff so that they can make print and photocopy with full responsibility o secrecy and as per the required numbers. Or, the question papers may be sent to the centres through office vehicles after open lockdown, and vi) the answer sheet can be examined by local teachers or can be brought to the examination controller office/dean office.
(The writer is the lecturer at the Patan Multiple Campus, Lalitpur, TU)
The terms ‘evaluation’ and ‘measurement’ are relative. The person who has not been the student of education stream in Nepalese context may mean the both terms as same but the truth is different. Evaluation is greater term in the meaning whereas measurement is its unit like. They are just like book and booklet or mango and one slice of mango. Referring to Ralph W. Tyler, Swayam Prakash JBR and others define ‘measurement’ in Curriculum and Evaluation as: ‘According to rule, measurement is the assignment of numerals’ (2071 BS: 160). These authors do not find much difference between educationists Tyler and S. Stevens in the definition of ‘measurement’ because they focus on ‘numerals and according to rule’. Likewise, these very authors recall Tyler and other educationists who define ‘evaluation’ in their same aforementioned book. For example, Tyler understands the ‘evaluation’ is the determination of degree to which the educational goals are the extent to which instructional objectives are achieved by pupils (166). These assumptions of the academicians draw the sharp differential line between ‘measurement’ and ‘evaluation’. Hence, conducting or participating an ‘examination’ in written or oral form is just a part of ‘evaluation’, that is to say, examination is just a ‘measurement’ of a student but it is not a ‘full and final’ measurement. For full and final measurement, a student has to participate in different measurements throughout the semester or fixed periodic time like class presentation, writing a term paper, quiz, midterm test, field visit, group discussion in the live class and so on. Like many other foreign universities, the Nepali universities including Tribhuwan University (TU) are facing the problems how to conduct the final examination either in semester or annual system to qualify the students for further year of the study.
The government has announced the enrolment of the student for new session and also conducting the final examination from coming 17 August 2020. To enroll the student by ignoring the public health is not so difficult but to conduct a massive examination in the campus level is not so easy. It needs full preparation of the student physically and mentally to participate in the final examination. In the case of TU, some student leaders claim that many students have not carried their textbooks to their home while leaving the capital city Kathmandu or nearby city where they were temporarily living on rent for higher studies. They also claim that when the mass students return to their room after long route vehicles resume from 17 August, their house lords may not allow them easily to enter the room. In such panic-stricken mental condition, a student cannot write anything in the answer sheet amidst their course is incomplete. So, these are apparently the talks of traditional method of examination system to ‘evaluate’ the student after end of the semester or academic annual session. Considering the mid semesters, that is before final semester, to evaluate the student through their many other activities mentioned above will be easy to upgrade the students for next semester but what TU and other universities are facing is ‘how to conduct the examination of final semester or final year at least of any level’.
While studying the technical courses like engineering and medicine and also the course like chartered accountants, many foreign universities like Indian technical universities have already conducted the online examinations by fixing time and home-town centres of the students and even they have already allowed the degrees of pass out. Their question forms are enhanced and have been framed for a particular specific time period to ‘measure’ the student without a claim of others. To have such things possible, a university’s teachers must have followed the other forms of measuring the students in the class during semester like a class presentation, writing a term paper, quiz, midterm test, field visit, group discussion in the live class and so on. Equally, the students must have followed these steps honestly and the access of the student and teachers to the online class must have. The colleges or the university of Nepal also which would have followed these steps honestly and sharply, and their students capable to have access to the online class easily can conduct the pattern of ‘final evaluation’ to allow the degree of any level but it is doubtful in the case of Nepali universities and in all faculties. In such case, just following the track of foreign universities to conduct the examination and ‘allow’ the certificate may create suspicion over ‘quality’ of the student and hence, their degree may not get validity in the world. What Nepali universities will improve their systems of measuring the students during semester strictly and what the federal government is promising to provide the access of students to the internet and online class are the matters of future, the current problem is how to ‘evaluate the Nepali students finally with global validity’ in the examination in the tradition they have followed along with their teacher. This is mandatory for the related parties in Nepal to realise that without bringing change in the habit of the teacher to follow all forms of measuring the students in the class by hook or crook and also the government keeping its promise of providing access of students to the online class is going to be now irrelevant in the world. This is a very serious question on the capability of the government, especially the capacity of the education minister during the global pandemic of the Covid-19 or other such potential in the future.
The columnist suggests the following ways which may be suitable for the concerning entities and people: i) the students can be asked to participate in the final traditional examination of any semester or level of course in the premise of nearby campus as home town centre in and maintaining the social distance; ii) if the mass is big, the students can be called for participation shift wise or lot wise but their question paper will be different; iii) the students may use social distance in the class or on the ground for taking examination; iv) In the case of semester classes, the question paper can be set for short time period by framing different forms of questions prescribed by the course nature, for example, instead of 60 marks of theory, one can set of 30 marks also and what the students secure the marks can be mentioned in double form or equivalent ratios in their certificate; v) the question papers can be sent to the official internet/e-mail address of the campus or campus chief or campus’s examination section chief staff so that they can make print and photocopy with full responsibility o secrecy and as per the required numbers. Or, the question papers may be sent to the centres through office vehicles after open lockdown, and vi) the answer sheet can be examined by local teachers or can be brought to the examination controller office/dean office.
The writer is the lecturer at the Patan Multiple Campus, Lalitpur, TU
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