University admission test and quality of education

Nagorik Oikko, a civil society platform, organised a roundtable titled 'Corruption in education system and ways forward' on October 2, 2014 at National Press Club, Dhaka. Blasting the education minister for what he said about the admission test, the speakers said the existing corruption and irregularities in the education sector are the main threats to improving the education standard. The speakers said there has been a gradual decline in the quality of education in recent times and the poor performance of students especially in Dhaka University's admission test reflects it. CR Abrar, professor of International Relations department of Dhaka University, said the blame game being played over Dhaka University test will not bring any good to the country. Even though the admission test procedure of Dhaka University has some limitations, still it is fine there are scopes of improving the procedure.
I can remember the days of my admission in the year 1983 at Jahangirnagar University. Our test was taken department wise. We sat for getting admitted in the department of English. Two compositions were given namely 'The last rays of the setting sun' and 'Jahangirnagar University Campus at 4'O clock.' Though we did not see the campus at four we wrote the composition from our imagination. This kind of test demonstrates the imaginative faculty of the students, their depth in language as well as grammar without testing the items separately.  We had to write some short notes on Surya Dighal Bari (a renowned Bangla movie), Karl Marx, Shawkat Osman etc.  Probably similar kind of testing items are still given in the admission tests of public universities which do not have any relation with the increasing race of pass rate in the public examinations where only certain testing items determine the students' merit which can be termed as 'examination based or focused education'.
The seats of higher education are limited in our public universities, and this compels the authorities concerned to select deserving students through admission test. Moreover, the public examinations and their results vary from board to board indicating that admission test is necessary to select deserving candidates for admission. This year admission seekers in different departments of Dhaka University  and Jagannath University could not obtain even  the lowest pass marks in the admission tests  though most of them  got GPA-5 in the public examinations namely the SSC and HSC. In 'Ka' Unit of Dhaka University 21.5 percent, in 'Kha' Unit 10 percent, 'Ga' 20.5 percent, in 'Gha' 16 percent and 'Cha' unit only 3.10 percent students obtained pass marks.  More interesting is only two candidates of 'Kha' unit qualified for getting admitted in the department of English of Dhaka University. On average 19 percent students obtained pass marks in all the five units of Dhaka University. Most of the students failed in Bangla and English which are the basic and compulsory subjects for them. It is heard that the Dhaka University authorities introduced General Knowledge in the admission test and 'Advanced English' only for those who wanted to get admitted in the department of English. Some want to say whether these newly introduced items were suitable for the students who passed the HSC examinations. And these things encouraged them to go to coaching centres as they guide the admission seekers following some regular routines. Some educationists want to say whether admission tests of our public universities go in the same way as our job interview where general knowledge and the knowledge of English and Bangla is tested. Dr. Niaz Ahmed of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) has expressed his concern whether we have intertwined admission test and job interview. It should be further reviewed.
From whatever point of view we look at our admission test and the results of public examinations, the performance of the students itself raises the concern of quality. As part of my usual work I made a field trip from 26 September to 1 October 2014 in the districts of Chuadanga, Pabna and Sirajganj and visited several secondary schools in these districts, both in urban and rural areas. I talked to the students of JSC examinees and nine graders. In every class I asked the JSC examinees to tell me in English that their JSC examination will start from the month of November. I also asked them to tell me 'the number of students of their class' in English. After many requests and giving clues only one or maximum two students tried to respond somehow. The rhetoric is the translation is not included in their syllabus. So, why they will learn it? Why they will be able to tell that 'there are fifty students in our class'(!). Again, these questions will not be set in the public examinations. So, they do not have any preparation for these questions. But I am sure that if the present trend of passing continues, all of them will get minimum 'A' in English  and many will get 'A+'  as the results of this year and the previous years tell this truth. When students know that they will  get either 'A+' 'or minimum 'A' in a particular subject even though they do not know the basic things of it, why they will read the book, why they will come to the class regularly.  My question to the authorities concerned 'how these students obtain GPA-5 or A+ in English?' Similar is the case with other subjects. I talked to several hundred students and out of them only four or five students tried to respond to the questions, others did not because they could not. I know the answers of our education authorities. First, they will say these questions will not be in the examination. When a student of class eight or nine cannot tell in English that 'there are fifty students in our class' shouldn't we think further of their way of teaching English and learning English?  Is it not a quite irrelevant point to try to establish relations between syllabus and the ability to answer these questions?
Our honourable minister for education expressed his opinion to tell him the way how to develop the situation or to stop the admission test as it places the quality of public examinations in questionable situation. He also told that it is not fair to judge the students in one or two hours through a particular question paper when they have studied for twelve years and obtained certificates. It certainly retains merit. Maybe, there lie some loopholes in the admission test. But the case we find visiting schools and talking to the students and subject teachers  and meeting the teachers  in the training room really makes us baffled. If we cannot bring drastic change in the whole system, we can at least change the trend of developing questions for public examinations. Students know which questions will be set in question number one, which in question number two and how to answer them. The classroom teaching and classroom teacher, coaching and special classes, guardians and schools, books of the market and coaching centres -all are concerned with examinations. What will be set in the examinations and how to answer them are the principal concerns of all just to get good marks. This concern of only examination has engulfed the whole society. Thinking and preparing for the examinations and even getting good grades do not necessarily ensure that the real teaching- learning is practiced in the classrooms and beyond.  Only exam based system never  emphasises quality education. It is certainly a different thing which we must agree and prepare our questions without following the same trend year after year. When this can be done, maximum problems regarding quality can be addressed without involving gigantic projects.
The writer is Programme Manager, BRAC Education Programme and Vice-president of Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA),
email:  [email protected]