IMPACT OF EXAMINATIONS
Examinations or tests are the means to assess the performance and achievements of the students and their importance in the schedule of education cannot be denied. However, in the course of time they gained such an excessive importance that, it gave rise to the equation of “Education for Examinations” and passing examination with good grade became practically the goal of education. This view finds support while people consider examination results as the mark of quality of education and criterion to evaluate the performance of the students and teachers and that of the schools also. Hence, one would not feel it out of the tune when he finds the requirements of examinations determining the mode of education. However, this approach is not that innocent, as it appears to be. It is on its account only that the educational work has eventually diverted from its normal course, setting aside to the subsidiary position and eventually degrading to the inconsequential status the growth and development of the various powers and faculties of the students and of their entire being, which is the primary goal of education.
It is observed that the ordinary mindset, because of its association with surface consciousness, has formed a habit of assessing the quality of an activity by its consequence or result. However, this result is having invariably an inseparable relationship with the process of which it is a product. Hence, the values of the two identical results obtained through different processes are likely to vary. This aspect of the results remains in the background only and for all practical purposes we consider the quantitative presentation in the form of marks or grade as a mark of success and we consider only those who are successful as worthy of honour.