This is the third month of our team's rigorous hard work. We are working to streamline the internal assessment method, the grading system and semester system as per the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission (UGC) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). In order to make Indian universities 'world class institutions' the two major institutions have recommended large scale reforms in the higher education system continuing for the last forty years. Implementation of the grading system and semester system were two such changes. Keeping its commitment working as per the guidelines of the UGC, our university also took this initiative.
It is necessary to look at the background of our university. The university was following a mixed evaluation system as well as a semester cum yearly evaluation method. The system proved highly expensive as well as inefficient. The system was neither taking care of the students' needs nor it was making it a feasible system for the university faculty. In fact, the faculties were not involved in any effective sense. To make the system more student friendly and ensuring full faculty participation in the evaluation system, the university introduced the grading system. At present all successful educational institutions like the IITs, IIMs, JNU, CUH etc are following a fully internal assessment based grading system.
However, the change has not been a smooth affair. A quick switch over from a conventional system to a new system brought the faculty unrest. In addition to this there was no clarity of philosophy behind how the system has evolved. What are the basics of the internal evaluation, which was suspected to bring more the element of subjectivity, as compare to the external evaluation advocated on the logic of objectivity. What made the whole process really troublesome was unavailability of any document related to this system. Moreover, there are no guidelines related to the relative evaluation, a right mix of subjectivity and objectivity which are the basics of the grading system, internal and continuous evaluation system.
The institutions like IITs and IIMs can do it since they have required infrastructure, technical skills as well as the expertise. However in case of universities which do not have the wherewithal cannot do that. We are trying and have achieved some success but yet there is a long way to go. I would strongly say that before making such recommendations the agencies should also do some research on the realities of the existing system. This will be helpful in smoother implementation of the recommendations.
