Presenter : Ghazala Muhammad Ali

Roll No. 2012-612Islamic Education

Semester SystemOur Education system is divided into two major parts-school education and college education.

The school education consists of elementary secondary and senior secondary stages.

The college education also consists of three stages-graduation, post graduation and research degree level.

First public examination is conducted at the end of secondary stage (class X), second at the end of senior secondary education (class XII), and after this examination are held every year. After one year of instructions a public examination is conducted by the institution. Every student has to appear in an examination after one year or academic session.

An academic session is the duration of teaching, approximately equivalent to one year between two successive annual examination.

Ch No.1

In semester system each academic year is divided into equal parts of about six months each semester- I and II semester. So, a semester is a period of six months during which teaching work is conducted. After the end of the teaching work of the six months, examinations are held. In this system examinations are held half-yearly instead of yearly.

What Semester System means

○ Carrying out the teaching work more regularly and comprehensively by using interdisciplinary approach, mutual corporation and new instructional strategies.

○ Making the syllabus more broad-based with main subjects including core and elective subjects.

○ Providing greater variety of subject area to suit the intellectual, motivational requirements of the students.

○ Reducing unnecessary stress and strain before and during teaching and examination period and making learning purposeful, pleasant and joyful activity.

○ Making teaching-learning more broad-based by including class discussion, tutorials, assignments and library work.

○ Introducing a system that can receive continuous feedback for improvement of learning experience so as to make them more effective.

The implementation of semester system

In the traditional system, the whole educative process is aimed at fulfilling the requirements of examination and teacher has no time for development activities due to pressing demand of completing course.

The system provides for introduction of greater flexibility in the curriculum and students have variety of courses open to them. This strengthens their knowledge base and provides flexibility in making future educational and vocational choices.

The teaching-learning process is constantly monitored by teachers through tests, assignments, classroom discussion and personal interaction with the students.

The concept of credit hours is more good thing to engage students in learning. We don’t allow a candidate to appear in an examination unless he/she completes certain percentage of class attendance.

The performance of the students is assessed not only in term of achievement scores obtained in tests, but also in terms of effort put in as measured by the credit hour.

Essential Features of the System

Students develop the habit of regular stud, sense of punctuality and work ethics.

Semester system requires a flexible and broad based curriculum to allow interdisciplinary approach of teaching and learning. The teachers are not in the habit of taking pain.

The teaching schedule will have to be adjusted to suit the requirements of flexibility of courses. Teaching not only requires well planned time-table, but also expert teachers capable of organizing such programmes.

The implementation of continuous internal assessment demands greater involvement of teachers by enhancing their workload. Due to large enrollment figures the teachers are already overburdened with teaching load.

Problems and Issues of Semester System

It is examination that decides as to who should be admitted to the upper socio-economic elite group and who should not be.

Many ambitious persons from lower socio-economic have climbed up the ladder of educational and social development by developing in them skills of passing examination.

It is also alleged that examinations permanently categorize individuals. For example, if a child’s intelligence as measured by a test is found to be low, he may be classified as un-teachable or un-educable by teachers.

Certainly tests assess only limited aspect of human behavior. Thus, it is not reasonable to take any conclusive decision on the basis of performance on a single test. It is commonly experienced that tests and examinations create anxiety.

The psychological side-effects of examinations are many. It is possible to observe stress and strain before and during examination in most school and college students.

Social Role of Examinations

Ch No. 2

When an examination favors a group or class of society against the interests of other groups which are subjected to dis-advantage, it is termed as “unfair” or “biased”.

Every society has groups distinguished by wealth, class, casts, creed which must gain, or be denied advantage by some aspects of any social process like assessment an selection.

The children of working class cannot take advantage of educational opportunities because examinations are “culture loaded” and hence have class bias.

The upper and upper-middle classes can take advantage of this bias by dint of cultural capital of their parents.

There is gradual filtration in the system and by the time the first public examination arrives after ten year of schooling.

Large proportion of lower socio-economic children is not longer part of examination part and is unable to perform even to the average level.

Meaning of Social Bias

Institutional Bias Superiority of students from private high fee charging schools is clearly visible. Institutions compete in showing good examination results either to attract

public interest or increased funds from the government. The elite classes choose to send their children to quality institutions and the

poor masses are compelled to send their children to poor quality institutions run by government. These institutions are of poor quality because they show poor examination results.

The English medium schools which are mostly private are popular among upper class society.

It is at this level that a decision is taken by the society as to “who” will become “what” in future.

Higher education can be divided into general education and professional education.

In general education an open door policy of admission is followed accepting everybody who desires higher education.

Professional education has become the privilege of upper classes. Professional institutions have adopt a policy of selective examinations.

Examinations are also charged of sex-bias. Examinations discriminate between boys and girls in in certain areas of

knowledge. Male students choose subjects as mathematics, physics and engineering

whereas female students enter subject like chemistry, biology, psychology and languages. Medicine and education attract large number of girls professionally.

Some research studies have shown that boys perform better in subjects requiring mathematical and spatial abilities, and girls show higher performance on subjects requiring verbal ability.

If examinations in these subjects are properly oriented to suit the requirements of both the sexes the situation may change.

Sex Bias