Srijonshil Proshno Poddhoti (the creative question system) was introduced in 2009 to deter students from relying on the widely available answer-books, which encourage slackers to memorise sample exam answers to stock questions. The results of the initiative have been disappointing.
The changes were meant to encourage students to think for themselves, but a number of publications like Panjeri, Onupom, and Computer are now releasing sample answer-books for the creative question system – undermining the whole point of the changes.
A new way
This year, students faced the creative question system in 21 subjects.
The first page of the sample answer-book offers an explanation of the creative question system. There is a prompt, which is an excerpt from the official course textbook (eg in the form of text, map, chart or diagram). Based on that prompt, the student is asked to answer four questions which are designed to test his or her: knowledge, comprehension, problem solving and analytical skills, and ability to draw inferences and provide a logical conclusion.
Prof Mohammad Zafar Iqbal, noted writer and educationalist, is a vocal advocate for the new system. "I have been told that students' dependence on guidebooks drastically decreased after introduction of the system. If we can convince students that looking up a guidebook is a waste of time, as it would not help in the public exams, then I think they will give it up eventually."
Sumaiya Doha, a student of Holy Cross College, finds the books a useful study tool. “Sometimes I look answers up in the guidebook to help understand verses of Bangla poetry, particularly those written in ‘shadhu bhasha.’”
However, other students do not believe the reality of the testing process reflects the philosophy of the system.
“The purpose of creativity is not being served,” said Fariha Jahan, a class IX student at Viqarunnisa Noon School. “We get higher marks when we write answers as they appear in the sample answer-books. In class tests, we are given questions that have been taken from the same answer-books.”
“I would urge the government to sternly ban the sale of guidebooks,” Manju Ara Begum, principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College said.
Passing the buck
A Bangla teacher at Lalmatia Girl’s School, seeking anonymity, admitted that many teachers rely on these answer-books to do their work for them. “Sometimes teachers set questions from the sample answer-books in school exams – often using the original phrasing.” She showed this correspondent two exam question papers, one from a sample book and another supposedly prepared by the school. They were identical.
Publishers of the answer-books go to schools at the beginning of each term to encourage teachers to use them. She said: “If you come to our teachers' room, you will find piles of complimentary sample answer-books.”
“Even the headmaster instructs us to prepare for classes using sample answer-books. In school meetings, we are instructed to provide the handouts in classes.”
These sample answer-books are often full of errors and spelling mistakes that are being replicated by the students. Increased reliance on them means many students do not bother to take notes properly in class.
Teach the teacher
Around 500,000 teachers were trained on the new system. But many people expressed dissatisfaction with the level of training given.
“To grasp this new creative question system, a teacher’s training of two or three days is not enough, particularly for those based outside Dhaka,” said Khadija Yasmin, vice-principal of Mirzapur Bisshobidyaloy College in Tangail. “We do not have good teachers at the local level. So orientating them to the creative question system is an ambitious project.”
As a result, she believes hardly any schools have benefited from the introduction of the creative question system: “We are lagging behind. For these teachers, it is not possible to come up with creative questions in class. They need rigorous training to understand the system.”
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the good results in this year's SSCs were achieved because of the introduction of creative question system, and properly training the teachers on the new system.
The way forward
Anjuman Ara, teacher of civics at Viqarunnisa Noon College, is a believer of the system. “Whenever something new is introduced, it takes time for the desired results to appear,” she said. “Before this system, students used to memorise a few questions that appeared the previous year in the board exams. So they could read only half the book and still get a good grade in the exam.”
Now, says Anjuman, they are obliged to not only read each and every line of the textbook, but also understand the underlying concepts.
Anjum suggested that teachers need to go through more training and the teaching methods in class should be upgraded as well: “A lot of investment from the government is needed to make this system a success.
Textbooks should be customised accordingly, and visual teaching methods can be introduced in classrooms.”
She also suggested teachers had to convince parents: “A lot of parents think that without coaching classes their children would not be able to get good marks in exam. This mindset needs to change.”
