The former Governor of Reserve Bank of India C. Rangarajan has called for revamping of the present educational evaluation system in order to facilitate a more meaningful assessment of the students’ competence.
Delivering the Convocation address at the 30th Annual Convocation of the VIT University at the VIT campus here on Saturday, Mr. Rangarajan said that there has been a tremendous expansion of higher education in terms of number of students, colleges and universities.
Improving quality, which is one of the dimensions of reform in higher education, requires action on many fronts. One of them is modernisation of the curriculum which is imperative in a world in which knowledge is expanding at a rapid pace.
Along with the modernisation of courses, we need to reform the examination system. It is very often said that the Indian education system is geared to answering examinations than to acquiring knowledge. Most often, examinations are a test of memory rather than of critical abilities. The revamp of the examination system must incorporate two basic features.
Assessment process
One, the process of assessment must be continuous so that the interest of the students can be maintained all through and that the examinations do not become purely a test of memory. Second, the examination must test the critical and analytical abilities of students, he said.
Mr. Rangarajan said that utmost care has to be taken to select appropriate people as teachers. The real foundation of an educational institution is the quality of teaching. “Apart from direct class room teaching we must make effective use of technology to transmit to students the knowledge and wisdom of outstanding scholars”, he said.
“Challenge the status quo”. This was the message of Debashis Chatterjee, Executive Vice-President and President, Technology Solutions, Cognizant Technology Solutions who was the guest of honour.
Tremendous opportunities
He said that tremendous opportunities were ahead of the present day students in this digital era which is the fourth chapter in technology, next to mainframe, the PC and the Internet. Technology has moved from merely automating transactions to digitising all aspects of our lives, be it banking transactions, healthcare or the automobile industry.
The pace of change is at a higher velocity, and innovation is happening at the grassroots as the digital era has made technology more accessible, he said.
G. Viswanathan, VIT Chancellor who presided wanted universities in India to step up their research output to contribute to the country’s productivity, without which the country cannot compete with other developed nations.
“According to a World Bank report, the countries which were on par with India in per capita GDP in the 1950s have moved up the ladder to increase the per capita GDP may times because of their focus on higher education and research output”, he said.
Degrees dsitributed
Mr. Rangarajan distributed the degree certificates to the gold medallists. Mr. Viswanathan gave away the certificates to the graduands.
A total of 5884 graduands comprising 3152 undergraduate candidates, 2552 postgraduate, 164 Ph.D. and four M.Phil. candidates at the Convocation. Anand A. Samuel, Vice-Chancellor of VIT welcomed the gathering. VIT Vice-Presidents Sankar Viswanathan, Sekar Viswanathan and G.V. Selvam participated.
Former RBI Governor delivered the convocation address at VIT Univesity
