The problem with examinations

To understand the problem with public examinations we need to understand the different objectives they serve and how they interact and conflict with each other

Summer brings with it Mangos, the summer loo, iced banta and, of course, examinations. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has just released their results; different state boards are similarly announcing results every other day. Delhi University is gearing up for its annual admission examinations, and similarly, there is NEET, CLAT, IIT-JEE and so on. Newspaper columns focus on various issues such as the problem of grade inflation, the impossibly high cutoffs for admission to the good colleges, the conflicting and impossible schedules of entrance examinations and so on. What is lost in the noise, however, is an understanding