"A few questions cannot evaluate a student´s ability," says Rohit Dhungel, an English teacher at Rosebud School.
Despite a fairly strong curriculum, students hardly benefit from it in the lack of the right pedagogy. "Though the curriculum is vast with diverse chapters in each subject, some chapters are ignored just because some inexperienced teachers aren´t capable of teaching," says Ghanshyam Bhandari, a teacher at Graded English Medium School (GEMS).
Rote-learning is one of the major problems that can hamper students´ abilities and harmfully influence the way they perceive education. "The examination does not help build attitude. The education is not practical," says Bhandari. "Questions are repeated every year. Students rote-learn their theoretical answers as they are sure what questions are likely to be asked in the examination," he adds.
Students have complaints too.
"I know I was judged mostly in terms of my handwriting. I secured distinction marks even though I had not done that well in the examination. Besides, I was awarded with 25 marks in my science practical though I had never even seen the lab of my school," says Aricha Regmi, a student currently studying in the eleventh grade at NIST College, Gongabu. "The questions get leaked too," she adds.
The short period given to examiners to deal with piles of answer sheets also leads to poor evaluation, teachers say.
"Examiners get piles of answer papers to evaluate in three months, so they give priority to handwriting and thus the markings are inconsistent," says Dhungel. There are cases of answer papers being burnt or lost without being evaluated.
Some students have experienced poor invigilation during the exam. Regmi had first-hand experience of this. "The invigilators were so loose that they themselves used to pass chits to the students," says Regmi.
To Prasansa Budhathoki, who completed A-Level psychology recently from Malpi International College, the way of teaching in the tenth grade also affected her eleventh grade as A-level classes basically focus on presentations, writing commentaries and other research works, which she had never carried out before.
Budhathoki suggests that the SLC curriculum be revised or completely changed to bring education to an international and more practical standards.
Dhungel stresses the importance of research work and good evaluation. "I think the students´ marks should be divided equally. Fifty percent marks should go from the tests taken by the school. Research and presentations should be emphasized too," he says.
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