IS EXAMINATIONS AIM OR VEHICLE FOR LEARNING?
Education is an indispensable part of our life. We cannot live without it. We need it in every part of our life. But in today’s world, education is not considered without exams. It is thought that examinations are the most essential part of our education system. However there are some opinions about their necessities in our life.
Firstly, examinations are means of evaluating student’s knowledge. They have been used by teachers or other people, who are responsible for education system, for years. Even, it is thought that there is not any other evaluation system or method except for exams. It is believed that the only effective way to test a student’s or person’s knowledge is examinations. Our education system becomes so dependent on exams that they started to ignore students’ real ability and capacity.
Secondly, examinations sometimes can be a waste of time. Because the aim is assessing a student’s studying level, there can be some problems while carrying out them. As we know, students can cheat during the exam. Because students memorize all of the knowledge about topics, they forget their knowledge during the exam. So, they try to cheat and examinations become nothing but a waste of time.
Finally, there should be other methods or ways except for examinations to assess students’ knowledge. It should be considered that students at the end are human, that is, they have feelings, emotions and problems. For example, a student can be ill or he or she can have psychological problems but they have to attend them. So, there should be some other ways to evaluate student’s knowledge or there should be less strict rules while applying them.
Of course, there some situations where examinations are required so they should be applied. I don’t mean that they are useless or we must have an education system without them. As they can be required in some places, there should be more effective precautions while putting practices them.
In conclusion, examinations are only means for evaluating a student’s knowledge. They shouldn’t be the only aim of our education system. It should be remembered that they may not indicate student’s real ability and so, they should be for learning not for meaningless memorizing.
Aysel DURMAZ