THE SSC examtoat Io n Ie considered the most Important public examl . nation In Bangladesh. If ' examinations arc tools, designed for various purposes and to perform various operations, none of them can be perfect but some can be more precise than others, and even a good instrument can be mishandled Yes, the tools used tn the SSC examinations

proclivity is to Imitate others without studying the feasibility

The achievement of the students can be measured chiefly tn three ways They are: (1) subjective judgement. (2) objective evidence, and (3) a combination of subjective judgement and objective evidence. Essay-type questions are the tools for subjective judgement whereas objective-type questions are the instruments for objective evidence. Now the question is. why they are used.

Essay-type Questions

Essay-type questions have Sot some merits as well as emerits. The merits are: (1) there remains the scope for creativity. (2) it increases language ability. (3) It enhances the ability to organize something and (4) It gives the opportunity to express something as a whole (emphasis on the whole). They have also got some demerits which are: (1) subjectivity. (2) tow content validity. (3) It takes a tong time to scrutinise a script. (4) the cost of examination is very high, and (5) they are not reMable. A test Is reliable if ft measures consistently over a tong period of time and a test is valid if tt measures what it intends to measure. The most coveted test is one that Is valid as well as reliable. The achievement of the students made by the essay-type ques Hons is, In most cases, a chance business. The students prepare some of the important questions answers and appear at the examinations In this way the average as well as the betow average students pass in the examinations without go Ing into the depth of the subject matter. Their orientation on the subject matter is usually sketchy like that of a tangent in geometry What is expected of a student on passing the SSC examination? Apart from the certificate, is there any true difference between a stu dent of Class X and a student who has passed the SSC examination? That is why, tt is revealed that due to mishan dling. the device has almost become a deceptive one.

Ohjeetive-type Questions The demerits of the essay type questions are the merits of the objective-type questions and vice versa. The objective type questions include: (1)

multiplechoice questions. (2) matching, (3) true-false, and (4) filling the gap In order to make the instrument reliable and valid, all the four categories need to be used to the extent It Is required. In Bangladesh only the multiplechoice questions represent the objective-type tests. Moreover, the students know the items with the help of the so-called question bank. What sort of reliability and validity do these question have? Is it an attempt to make the education easier?

A Combination of both the Tools

Since each tool has got some merits as well as demerits, a combination of both the Instruments is tn vogue tn the developed world. The creative potentiality is nourished along with the content validity The objective-type Items give- the opportunity to ask questions randomly from the whole syl labus which represents an In strument with high content as well as predictive validity As a renovation tn our education system, we have introduced a combination of both the tools. Aren't the objective-type instrument mishandled? So. by mishandling the Instruments we have Introduced a defective system of examination tn the name of renovation. It seems to be for the sake of change Since curriculum is a changing phenomenon, the educationists might have been tempted to make a change In order to get rid of monotony) But we should keep in mind that change maybe good or bad. It is only the wise' men who study the feasibility of bringing about a change. So, It is apparent the renovation will jeopardise our education system. In order to

ward off this negative trend, the following recommendations can be considered.

1. In order to' make the essay-type questions unbiased, a point-scale can be used. For example, a question assigning 10 numerical value can have the following potnt-scale : Scope of content —>2. organizing the content — >3. grammatical aspect — >3, and relevance to the question asked —>2.

2. A script must be scrutinized question-wise, that Is. each time a scrutlnlzer will be scrutinizing a particular questions of all the scripts. In this way. variations in judging scripts due to various factors like mood, situation of the environment etc, can be reduced to a large extent.

3. A script must be scrutinized by two scrutinlzcrs and they will give their judgement on a different sheet, that is. they will not write anything on the script. The two scores can be compared statistically and If they differ significantly. a third examiner can be employed for the final judgement. In this way. the carelessness of a scrutlnlzer can be traced out and there must have the provision of punish ment for this sort of failure or negligence. (It can be argued that the late of a student can by no means depend on a careless or an Incompetent scrutlnlzer).

4. In order to make objec tive-type questions reliable and valid, all the four categories like multiple-choice, matching, true-

false, and filling the gap should be used to the extent tt is required.

5. The multiple-choice question are of six categories. They are: (I) knowledge, (2) comprehension, (3) application, (4) analysis, (5) synthesis, and (6) evaluation. The questions representing analysis, synthesis and evaluation are categorized as higher than application through which the Intellectual potentiality of a student is measured. A public examination must have to be standardized and in doing so there must be a good combination of all the six categories of the multiplechoice questions.

6. The stem of the multiplechoice item must be made clear, specific and short In order to avoid unnecessary contusion. 7 There must have checks and balances against answering multiple-choice questions through guessing And in so doing a series of questions can be set. In order to justify full marks, a student must have to answer all the questions in a series correctly. In this way, it can be traced out whether or not a student comprehend the first (major) question tn the series.

& In order to make the multiple-choice item reliable and valid, all the choices need to be correct. So, a student Is required to trace out the best possible choice Since It is not possible to ask questions of higher than application with the three other types of objective Items, the multi pie-choice Item must outnumber the other items.

9. True-false questions sho uld cover the minimum portion of the objectivetype items since It Is the least reliable of all the objective Hems.

10 The filling In the gap item can be made reliable with some false or unnecessary gaps. It is more reliable' than the true-false type items.

1 1. Matching item can be made reliable with the choices outnumbering the questions, that 1s, there must be more than one choice for each question. It is .more reliable than the true-false and filling the blank items.

12. The following combination can be made for a question paper : essay-type — 35 per cent, short and guided essay — 15 per cent, multiple-choice — 25 per cent, matching — 10 per cent, filling the blank — 8 per cent and true-false — 7 per cent.