Number of words: 819

Competition was largely unknown, with the result that examinations proved to be more diagnostic in their execution. Those who had an opportunity to study, probably did so in order to know more about spiritual and moral matters, with the purpose of improving themselves through this knowledge. The dialectical discussions were more to prove the effectiveness of the teacher than because they opened up avenues for jobs or salary for the student. For the most one could achieve if he were successful in such a discussion would be the approval of the audience and rarely the bestowal of a title of privilege.
With study for its own sake, examinations were a secondary issue and became accepted in life as any other tests that had to be faced. And while the reliability of this examination is open to criticism, the fact that one’s future employment or status did not depend on them, made them far less pernicious in their effects.

With the invention of printing and mass production of the accessories for writing and printing, the written examination was adopted in our country. These were, however, for a long time no more than written recitations because there was yet no substantive difference between it and the system which it replaced. Most of these examinations were highly unstructured and subjective and therefore not very accurate.

Written examinations in England made their appearance at Cambridge in 1770. An interesting anecdote is narrated by John Scott, who went to Oxford in 1766. “I was examined in Hebrew and in history. I was asked, ‘What is in Hebrew, the name for the place of a skull?’ I replied golgotha. ‘Who founded the university college?’ I replied ‘King Alfred’. ‘Very well’ said the examiner, ‘You are competent for your degree.’”

Ancient Indian education emphasized the eternal values that it was through knowledge that one could attain self-restraint and self-realisation. Why then were we so eager for change? The main reason appears to be that long before the 19th century, the Hindus and Muslims had reached a stage where all advances in natural knowledge had become arrested. For Muslims, their thinkers, discoverers and writers of standard treatises were almost all non-Indian Muslims who lived before the 14th century. In India, they produced only commentators and compilers of compendiums. Even the Mughals of India, famed for their wealth and glory, made no contribution to the advancement of these sciences. In a situation as stagnant as this, the introduction of a new type of knowledge by the British, was a seed planted on fertile ground.

And yet, the British themselves, not always friends of the country, had words of praise for the system of education that they encountered in India. William Adam writes in 1835. Native boys learn everything, not merely by reading but by writing it. This appears preferable to the mode of early instruction current among ourselves, according to which elements of language are first taught with the aid of the eye and ear, and writing is left to be subsequently acquired. Prendergrast states in 1821: There is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories in which there is not at least one school. Very young natives are taught reading, writing and arithmetic upon a system so economical, at the same time so simple and effective, that there is hardly a cultivator or dealer who is not competent to keep his own accounts with the degree of accuracy. Walker, in his note on education in the Malabar area around 1820 writes. The children are instructed without violence, and by a process particularly simple. The system was borrowed from the brahmins and bought from India to Europe. It has been made the foundation of national schools in every enlightened country. Some gratitude is due to people from whom we have learnt to diffuse among the lower ranks of society instruction by one of the most enduring and economical methods, which has ever been invented. The pupils are monitors of each other. Leitner, director of public instruction in the Punjab writes. Education was far more extended in the Punjab than it is at present. By far, the greater number of teachers and priests who all taught had grants of rent free land and land given for a purpose was never resumed. Peter Della Valle, writing in 1623 about instruction in Malabar said.” I asked them if they happen to forget or be mistaken in any part of the lesson, who corrected or taught them, they being all scholars without the assistance of any master. They answered me and said though that it was not possible for all four to forget a mistake in the same part. And that they exercised together, to the end that if one happened to be out, the other might correct him. Indeed, a pretty easy and secure way of learning.”

Excerpted from pages 38-41 of ‘Examinations: An Informative Update’ by M Mascarenhas.