Ratna Das
Department of Education,
Assistant Professor
Gargaon College,
Simalaguri, Dist-Sivasagar, Assam, India
Abstract
This paper is an analysis of
student’s perception about semester system of education introduced in the degree
colleges under Dibrugarh University. The study has been conducted on 200
undergraduate students selected at random from five selected degree colleges of
Sivasagar District affiliated to Dibrugarh University of Assam to find out
their perception towards semester system of education. A self-structured
questionnaire revealing perception of students towards evaluation process under
semester system was administered. The collected data were analyzed through
using frequency and percentage. The research result revealed that the
perception of students towards internal assessment and overall evaluation under
semester system is not quite satisfactory. The findings of the present study
will help in developing strategies to make modification of evaluation process
under semester system.
Keywords: Perception, Curriculum,
Evaluation, Favorable attitude
1.Introduction
As a result of the impact of globalization, liberalization
and privatization educational system all over the world has been changing
drastically for the last few years. Because of the advancement in science and
technology and exposure to new concepts and knowledge educationists all over
the world has been investigating to find out more innovative and effective
system of education. Semester of education is a product of these
investigations. We find that most of the nations of the world today are
following this new system of education in their higher education. The central
universities in India have been following this from quite some time. Though
Assam has reacted to this new system quite lately but at present, most of the
universities in Assam have also introduced this semester system at graduate and
post-graduate level. Dibrugarh University of Assam has introduced semester
system at undergraduate level from the year 2012. The semester system is a very
effective system as it engages both the teachers and the students throughout
the year in academic activity. It also reduces the burden of examination. Semester system is not
only an examination system rather it is a learner centered system of education
whose primary concern is learning instead of teaching. The main motto of
semester system is to put emphasis on continuous internal assessment of
learners’ progress.
Etymologically the Word
‘Semester’ originates from a Latin Word ‘sementris’ which means ‘Course
of six Months’. The word ‘Se’ means Six and ‘mentris’ means month. So,
it literally means ‘Half of a Year’ or ‘one of the two divisions of an Academic
Year’. However, a Semester does not only mean dividing an academic year into
two half yearly sessions. It is an innovative approach to teaching-learning
process, a new educational culture, which allows
greater interaction between teachers and the students.
Itis noteworthy to be
mentioned here thatPathak& Rahman (2013) in their research study has found
out that the overall perception of both students and teachers towards
curriculum under semester system is good. 9 % of the students are strongly
satisfied, 60.2% are satisfied and 7.5 % are strongly dissatisfied with the curriculum under semester system of
education. The study also revealed that 10.5 % of the student
respondents are strongly satisfied, 59.4 % are satisfied with the syllabus
coverage within stipulated time period. Again regarding the regularity and
punctuality of the teachers it is found that 48.9 % students are strongly
satisfied and another 42.2 % are satisfied under system. Similarly Rana and
Perveen (2013) in their research study on “a Study to investigate the views of Punjab UniversityStudents regarding
Semester System in Pakistan” has found out that 90% of the respondent
have semester system develops creative powers in the students, 60% affirmed
that the semester system helped to broaden the students’ perspective. Half of
the students have accepted that the students find enough time to prepare
themselves for the type of examination offered in semester system. 92% of the
student answered that semester system made the system made the workload
lighter. Besides this in the above survey 88% students confirmed that pass
percentage is greater in semester system. From the above study it has been
found that 30% of the sample groups shown their favorable attitude towards the
implementation of semester system but 70% of the teachers have shown their un
favorable attitude to awards implementation of semester system.
2.
Objective
Through the present
study, an attempt is made to analyze the student’s perception with regard to
quality of evaluation under semester system of education.
3.
Methodology
The
following method has been applied in the present research study. Considering
the nature of the data collected, Descriptive survey method has been adopted in
this present study. In the present study all the students of degree colleges of
Sivasagar District has been considered as the population. In the present study
the sample of the universe has been selected by adopting simple random sampling
technique. There is 21 degree colleges affiliated under Dibrugarh University in
Sivasagar District of Assam. Considering the feasibility of the study out of
these 21 colleges 5 colleges has been selected randomly for the study. After
that 24% of students from these five colleges have been selected randomly as
the sample for the study. The sample size of the study consists of 200
undergraduate students. The required data to meet the objective was collected
through administering a questionnaire prepared by the investigator. The
questionnaire contains questions focusing on students view about the quality of
evaluation under semester system.
The present
study was delimited in the following aspect: (a) The present study has been delimited
to degree colleges affiliated under Dibrugarh University.(b)The study has been delimited to the students of 5th
semester only.(c)The present study has been
delimited to the degree colleges of Sivasagar District only.
4. Results and Discussion
The main objective of the
present study is to analyze the student’s perception with regard to quality of
evaluation under semester system of education .The data collected against this
objective is analyzed below-
4.1 Does evaluation under
semester system gives true picture of student’s abilities.
The data collected against the above
question is shown in the table.no.1 below
Table No.1
Response
|
Number of
Respondents
|
Percentage
of respondent
|
Yes
|
126
|
63%
|
No
|
74
|
37%
|
Total
|
200
|
100%
|
The
above table shows that 63% students out of 100 replied in favor of semester system
and only 37% of the respondents have given their consent against semester
system. The data tabulated above is demonstrated with the help of the following
bar diagram.
4.2
Does the students get more marks under semester system?
The data collected against the above
question is shown in the table.no.2 below
Table No.2
Response
|
Number of
Respondents
|
Percentage
of respondent
|
Yes
|
134
|
67%
|
No
|
66
|
33%
|
Total
|
200
|
100%
|
Table no.2 reveals that according
to 67% of respondent students get more marks under semester system and on the
other hand 33% of respondent has replied that students do not get more marks
under semester system of education. The data tabulated above is demonstrated
with the help of the following bar diagram.
4.3
Do you think that due to frequent examination it creates anxiety among the
students?
The data collected
against the above question is shown in the table.no.3 below
Table No.3
Response
|
Number of
Respondents
|
Percentage of
respondent
|
Yes
|
146
|
73%
|
No
|
54
|
27%
|
Total
|
200
|
100%
|
Table no.3 reveals that
according to 73% of respondent due to frequent examination under semester
system it creates anxiety among the students and on the other hand according to
27% of respondent frequent examination doesn’t create anxiety among the student
under semester system of education. The data tabulated above is demonstrated
with the help of the following bar diagram.
4.4.
Do you think that less attachment with your teachers may leads to negative
effect on your internal assessment marks?
The data collected
against the above question is shown in the table.no.4 below
Table no.4 reveals that
according to 49% of respondent that less attachment with their teachers may
lead to negative effect on their internal assessment marks and on the other
hand according to 51% of respondent less attachment with their teacher does not
lead to negative effect on their internal assessment marks under semester
system of education. The data tabulated above is demonstrated with the help of
the following bar diagram.
Table No.4
|
Response
|
Number of Respondents
|
Percentage of respondent
|
|
Yes
|
98
|
49%
|
|
No
|
102
|
51%
|
|
Total
|
200
|
100%
|
4.5.
Do you think that students have become more examination oriented under semester
system?
The data collected against the above
question is shown in the table.no.5 below:
Table No.5
Response
|
Number of
Respondents
|
Percentage
of respondent
|
Yes
|
174
|
87%
|
No
|
26
|
13%
|
Total
|
200
|
100%
|
Table no.5 reveals that
according to 87% of respondent students have become more examination oriented
under semester system on the other hand according to only 13% of respondent
students have not become more examination oriented under semester system of
education. The data tabulated above is demonstrated with the help of the
following bar diagram.
The main findings of the study are
summarized as-
- Most of the respondents (63%) are of the view that evaluation under semester system gives true picture of student’s abilities.
- According to 67% of respondent students are able to get more marks under semester system of examination.
- According to 73% of respondent due to frequent examination under semester system it creates anxiety among the students.
- 49% of respondents are of the opinion that less attachment with the teachers may lead to negative effect on their internal assessment marks.
- According to 87% of respondent students has become more examination oriented under semester system of education.
5. Policy Implication
- In the above study as it has been found that frequent examination under semester system creates anxiety among the student, so some modification in the examination system under semester system is very much essential to minimize the feeling of anxiety among the student.
- In the above study as it has been also found that less attachment with the teacher’s may lead to negative effect on the internal assessment marks of the student, so the system of evaluation through internal assessment needs proper monitoring by the authority.
- As most of the respondent have replied that students have become more examination oriented under semester system, so the evaluation system under semester system should be modified in such a way so that the students does not give more importance only on appearing in the examination.
6.
Conclusion
From the above study it
can be concluded that though the implementation of semester system is an
innovative approach in Higher Education system of Assam but the perception of
the students of undergraduate colleges of Sivasagar district under Dibrugarh
University regarding the evaluation process under semester system of education
are not so much satisfactory. The analysis of the results shows that most of
the students perceive that frequent examination creates anxiety among them and
students have become more examination oriented under semester system. Moreover
49% of students feel that due to less attachment with their teachers may leads
to negative effect on their internal assessment marks. On the other hand it has
been also found that some of the students have also provided satisfactory
answer. Most of students believe that
evaluation under semester system gives true picture of student’s abilities and
they are also able to get more marks under this system.
References
- Rana and U. Perveen (2013, May). “A study to investigate the views of punjab university students regarding semester system in Pakistan.” Asian Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities.(online). 2(2), pp.79 – 83.
- P. Mallik (2013, November). “A Study on Implementability of Semester System of Examination in Under Graduate Course of Calcutta University.” Indian Journal of Applied Research. (Online).3(11), pp.122 -124.
- T. Pathak and A. Rahman.(2013). “Perception of Students and Teachers towards Semester System: A Study in Some Selected Degree Colleges of Nagaon town of Nagaon District of Assam.”Journal of Education and Practice. (online) Available:
- http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/JEP/article/view/4045. 4(1), pp.84- 91.
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