It goes beyond a yes' or no'

Updated on: Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Subjects coming under the faculty of arts are synonymous with lengthy, essay-type writing, especially in examination answer scripts. The writing and analytic skills, as important as they are to the students of arts, become a pre-requisite to the lecturers who are training and evaluating them. What if the new set of lecturers, who will be teaching the next generation of arts students, are not evaluated in these very skills? Would their right to evaluate students on these qualities be justified? These are the questions that arise out of a significant change in the qualifying test for lecturers, where they will be attempting objective-type questions rather than essay ones.
What is it?

The National Educational Testing Bureau of the University Grants Commission (UGC) conducts the National Eligibility Test (NET) to determine eligibility for lectureship and for award of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) for Indian nationals to ensure minimum standards for the entrants in the teaching profession and research. The test is conducted in Humanities (including languages), Social Sciences, Forensic Science, Environmental Sciences, Computer Science and Applications and Electronic Science.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) conducts the UGC-CSIR NET for other Science subjects — Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Earth, Atmospheric, Ocean and Planetary Sciences jointly with the UGC. The tests are conducted twice in a year generally in the months of June and December.

For candidates who desire to pursue research, the JRF is available for five years subject to fulfilment of certain conditions. The JRFs are awarded to the meritorious from among the candidates qualifying for eligibility for lectureship in the NET.
The change

The regulatory body, from the test to be held this June onwards, has decided to do away from writing long answers in the nation-wide eligibility test. Instead of writing descriptive answers, candidates will now be answering with “yes” and “no”. Presently, there are two objective-type tests to examine the candidate's general knowledge and teaching aptitude, as well as a subjective section to test the in-depth knowledge in a specialised subject.

UGC, in its explanation for the change in pattern of the question paper, said this would help expedite the process of announcement of results, which was often not the case as a result of the present pattern. The other reason cited was that there were instances of candidates not being satisfied with the evaluation of the subjective questions.

The change has been met with mixed response. While some see the intention behind it, there has been an opposition from academic quarters.

H.N. Subrahmanyam, a faculty member at BASE, the Bangalore-based organisation providing training for NET and JRF exams, said that the move has its advantages as well as pitfalls. “When you are looking for lecturers for arts subjects, how can you assess skills of essay writing, appreciation etc., through objective questions? Of course, it has its benefits: a very large number of people take up this exam, and the announcement of results will be made quicker. But the evaluation may not be up to the mark.”

Language lecturers are heavily unconvinced. Sumitra M., Reader in the Centre for Kannada Studies of Bangalore University, raised questions over the difference in the method of preparation for arts students.

“Several of my students are aspiring to be lecturers. After studying M.A. for two years and spending another couple of years for attaining a Ph.D., they will have to get used to preparing for a competitive exam kind of a paper. Instead of critically examining a text, they will be remembering minute details of the text or book,” she said. Speaking about the fear of confusion that students have expressed while attempting the exam, she also asked how objective questions would help in enriching writing, language and analytical skills of the candidate. “Is the evaluators' perspective important or the students' problem?” she asked.

It goes beyond a yes' or no'

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