We should leave the examinations alone. Exams per se are not the problem. The problem is the education system, politicians, ministry officials, academia, teachers, parents and the students themselves.

Worldwide, there is still no viable substitute for examinations. In educational pedagogy, examinations are a measure of feedback for correction, performance evaluation, measure of ability, aptitude, a toold for career guidance and the only incentive for students to study acquire new knowledge.

Leave exams as they are and change everything else to make education conducive, wholesome and enjoyable to all. This is a problem for the educationists of the country, who still have not formulated a good, wholesome curriculum for the country. We do things piecemeal and ad hoc to satisfy politicians who want votes and could not care less about educational standards.

Examinations should not be school-based but must be national as they are now in order to be fair to students across the country. For example, a student in a rural school might get 8 ‘As’ in a school based assessment, but the same student in an urban school might only have scored 8 ‘Bs’. So who gets into the university?

Evaluation cannot and should not be based on assignments, project work and field trips alone because they are assessed subjectively by the examiners and almost everyone who submits his paper gets high scores. Only an exam that is objective can discriminate between the whole spectrum of talent in our society.

That may seem unfair but it is better to be unfair on the side of meritocracy. This ensures the success of future generations and the country's future. Let us not sacrifice long term benefits for short term gains.

Therefore, exams should be recognised for their true value and justice should never be compromised for the sake of popularity.