The human race is progressing at its best
pace in this generation. The last 20 years have seen developments from the
personal computer to data storage devices the size of your fingernail.
Everything in today’s world is required to be fast, organized, extremely responsive
and dynamic to the user’s needs.
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There
was a time not so long ago when paperwork pre-dominated all aspects of work.
From something like sending a message across to analyzing huge amounts of data,
it was all done on paper, by hand. Even in today’s time, most government
offices rely on paper records than online data to provide service to the
masses.
There
was something else that lived through. Examinations
have since time immemorial been done on paper. Keeping with tradition, exam
papers are sorted, checked and piled along with millions of such sets in a
government facility somewhere. What we get in return is also a piece of paper
that we have to protect with utmost care for the entirety of our lives, which
serves every time we sit for an interview, sit for another exam and many other
formalities. It is quite natural but painful to imagine what would happen if we
were to lose such a paper. Or worse yet, be an accessory to its destruction
through some accident. Thus will begin a historic journey through countless
offices and desks, to apply, inspect and retrieve that document.
Competitive
exams can define the next 50 years of a student’s career and are pursued by
over 40 lac students per year. Only a lucky handful makes it through and reaps
the benefits of these nationally recognized exams. However, the amount of money
and manpower involved in conducting these exams is mind boggling. Last year,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, allotted a whopping 170 crore rupees to UPSC for
annual maintenance and compensation of UPSC staff.
Over
40,000 million sheets of paper are used for all competitive exams annually.
That is over 47 lakh trees. Apart from this un-environment friendly factor,
time and effort required to run these exams is also excessive. Conducting a 3-hour
exam all over the country at different points of time, employing staff to
invigilate and check the papers, maintenance of these records and results
declaration are herculean tasks which take over 4-6 months to complete. And to
top it all, the application processes are so cumbersome; most students do not
clear the exams or spend heavily on coaching centers to crack the tests.
Shifting
these exams to an online experience can open up a world of possibilities. Apart
from the obvious time/ money benefits, another wonderful advantage comes to the
limelight. As online exams require at least some computer knowledge, it is
driving students from rural areas, who are the forerunners to giving entrance
exams; to learn basic computing. This gives them an edge from the start to do
well in their respective careers as computer ability has grown to be really
important for most jobs these days.
Online
test taking can even take care of invigilating activities. With the invention
of cloud computing and automated test scoring systems, exams can be centrally
conducted and monitored by a small group of people for the lakhs of students
appearing around the country. The diagram below explains a very simple flow of
information which can facilitate secure entrance exams.
On
the contrary, online exams can take away the exclusivity of these exams. A
prominent scholar and railway exam conductor had once discussed the
disadvantages of using the online platform in a marvelous interview once in
Kolkata some time back.
There
is a strong logic behind conducting paper exams. It is said that essentially,
the handwriting style of a person represents his flow of thoughts and his grasp
of the subject matter. Someone writing in a slow cursive fashion represents his
quality of expression, while scribbled and speedy suggests perfect knowledge
base and the eagerness to transfer it to paper. Typing out cannot achieve this
effect.
Also,
an online exam will definitely save a lot of time but it is not a way of
understanding how much thought and speed the student can demonstrate in
pressure situations. A written exam gives all students almost equal amount of
time to think and write. Whereas, online exams will provide a lot of time to
think and time only to click/ type. Thinking is good, but presenting your own
thought process would become a challenge.
And
most importantly, in direct contradiction to a point mentioned above, online
exams would require an infrastructure to inculcate all students around the
country to basic knowledge of computers. This is a massive task to achieve in a
place where some students have difficulty in getting primary education itself.
Introducing a system to make sure every student is computer literate by the
time they are ready to sit for competitive exams is a task to reckon.
Accommodating
fair judgment of papers, providing ease of statistical analysis,
experimentation with setting the type of paper, opportunity to increase the
number of applicants and providing an easy access to the exams, online exams
are defining the way for a future that teachers would prefer and entrants need,
today. However, there is a reason that old wine is always better than the best
processed wine in the world. A charm or rather the intrinsic value of a process
is only realized when it is no longer available. It has to be acknowledged that
handwritten exams are sufficiently popular, or else it couldn’t have persisted
for this long a time.
Nevertheless,
considering all factors, handwritten exams have overstayed their welcome. It is
about time that a newer, fresher and much more responsive process steps in to
replace the existing system of testing competitive exams. With technology, the
best part is that all kinks are figured out eventually and getting a seamless
experience is just a matter of time.
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