Let's phase out the Pen and Paper Exam: To evaluate ourself

Examinations are used as tools to evaluate learning output in any kind of training or educational academy. We have been in these systems for many years. Now it is right time to make a debate on this issue whether we are assessing student's skill or learning ability accurately using pen and paper type exams?.

(Picture Source: Daiylmail.co.uk)

The traditional exam has certain advantages. They have the same question to all candidates so it is easy to make equal standard to all candidates. It is also considered more fair then other kind of exam because it provides a clear cut boundary between exam taker and examiner. For example, in our country, the examination conducted by public service commission has good faith form all people. Every one believe that these examination are fair and no one can make favor to any candidate. This is the strong point that many people advocate that formal method of examination are important to evaluate candidate. In addition, these examination can access the different ability of candidate such as reasoning, understating and critical thinking  using different types of questions such as mathematical questions, multiple choice questions and essay type questions.

On the other hand, we can see many demerits on these kind of examinations. It is obvious that one can't measure's someone's ability within a period of three or four hours written examination. Many students couldn't perform well in such exams because of anxiety even though they have good skill and ability.

So, It is very important to take serious steps during the design of test materials whenever possible. Some time test designers only focus on specific area and miss to evaluate overall performance of  candidates. For example, Sometime candidate get passed in some examination but fail to perform well in their duty. It is all because of lacking in evaluation criteria set during examination design. 

In conclusion, we can't totally escape from the traditional pen and paper examination but can make it more scientific using modern tools and technologies. Other assessment techniques  such as presentation, debate competition and writing assignment can be used ti measure the specific ability in a candidate in addition to traditional examination. For example, writing assignment can be designed to measure the independent learning ability and project competition to assess the ability of team work capability.

Public Policy: Affairs In Nepal

Introduction:

A policy is well formed document that describe principles of actions of any organization, government or an individual. A public policy is directly connected with government. It describe the relationship of government with people. Any policy that impact the general public can be considered as public policy. This article will discuss about the different issues on why public policies in Nepal are not implemented well and are not capable of yielding expected output.

(PC: Bucknell University)

Background

First of all, we must go through the source of policy formulation in Nepal. Theoretically, the policies must be formulated on the basis of Constitutional directions and theory, National Program and Plan, to address demands of the public on specific issue, pressure form the civil society etc. But, we can see that polices have not been formulated solely on these bases, they are mostly influenced by the political leader's interest (not form the political party interest), for the benefits of specific group of people (not for the benefits of common people). This is the challenging problem that policies in Nepal are not formulated on the basis of open discussion, taking the voice of common people, participating the stakeholder in the drafting process.

Problems:

On the basis of above mentioned facts, the major problem that most of the policies in Nepal have been never implemented even though they were very good in principle, is the co-ordination gap between different government entity as well as other policy stakeholders. For example, The Boardband policy is prepared by ministry of communication but it impact other sector of governance as well. So the ministry should study other related policy in the field of information communication technology, before drafting any ICT related policy. The broadband and telecom policy have many similar provision as in  Information Technology Policy that has been prepared by Ministry of science and technology.

In Nepal, Policies are formulated in high speed, sometime within one night if it is necessary for the interest of leaders. They never focused on the  collection of information, facts and feedback related to the issue that the proposed policy is going to address. Also the beurocratic high personal sometime mislead leader due to their own career or posting or similar advantages.

On the other hand, we never prioritize the policy and program, that directly impact the later stage. We proposed so many project and program in a single fiscal year and don't complete a single projects within that year. It is all due to the lack of assigning priority and budget to a single/valuable/necessary project. 

The last but not the least, to implement each and every policy, our government don't have sufficient resource, both qualified human resource as well as financial resources. In addition, Nepal is situated in between two giant country: china and India, both are the evolving power of the world, government policies in Nepal are often influenced by external entities such as Neighboring country, International Donner Agency and INGO's.

Conclusion

To come up with these problems, the policy maker should be aware of that how they can increase the participation of stakeholder during the policy formulation process, about the co-ordination between different implementation agency  and availability of resource to implement the policy. Also, the policy makers also need to negotiate with Donner Agency as well as external forces on behalf of Nation's welfare and goodness.

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Vehicles, Pollution and Kathmandu: A common man prospective

Kathmandu is a hub for all kind of affairs: political, education and tourism. It is one and only a metro city in Nepal. People come to this city for the purpose of getting education as most of the college are catered here. they come to this city to get access to government as the most of government services are centered here.The city is being polluted day by day the population is getting more and more and  number of vehicles is increasing. In some aspect it is due to a private vehicles that individual uses for their transportation and the other side, the expansion of water supply pipe by Melamchi Water Project.

 Figure: Air pollution in Kathmandu (source: Kathmandupost.com)

First, the use of private vehicles increases traffic on the road. It takes more time to reach destination due to the loss of time in traffic. We couldn't reach on time to any place and loss most important business meeting or similar things. More people need more vehicles as they are using it for their own private purpose, the number of vehicles increases and it definitely increase the pollution. The best way of reducing pollution is to make a policy that demotivates the use of private vehicles and promotes  public transportation such as bus, metro train or railways.

Secondly, Not only the vehicles are making Kathmandu polluted, the extension of water supply pipeline under the new water supply project inside the Kathmandu valley called Melamchi Water Supply project is causing worst environment in this city. The day to day road digging and expanding under-ground pipeline creates a lot of dust particles and all air in Kathmandu now days is mixed of this dust. Everyone is feeling very uncomfortable in breathing due to this toxic dust contained air. As a result, people are started protesting against this action and demanding the on time management of dust produced during the construction of underground water supply pipelines.

In conclusion, it can be said that we must take care of environment whenever we are lunching any development related project. It is because the most development related project impacts the environment  and creates pollution. we should be much aware that such development project create minimum hazard to environment. The other side to prevent air pollution is to boost good traffic management strategy and reduce the use of private vehicles. In this regards, the government agency should be more focused to create a atomsphere that everyone could use public vehicles for their daily life activities.

Social Status and Material Possesion cann't judge a Person's Worth

Human beings are social creatures.We live our life with in the premises of society. In a group of people, one judge other for many reasons. Some evaluates a person on the basis of his/her lifestyle and social status, others uses some different criteria to evaluate a person such as his kindness, trust and values. I believe that the judgement made on the basis of one's social status is only for a while and not for a lifetime for the following reasons.

First, physical properties such as house, cars, bank balances and other materials are only for showcase, they can't provide eternal peace and prosperity, even though one possessing these things seems to be happy. To have a sense of goodness and happiness, one should show his/her kindness help to the needy people. For example, when you are walking on footpath and see a old lady trying to cross a road with difficulty and you help the lady , then you feel a real feeling of worthiness.

Second, if we judge people's worth on their social status rather than their good moral characteristics, our next generation will no longer able to learn the human kindness, tradition and social values. To build a good society, we need people with good moral behaviors. It is only possible if we teach our children about the importance of moral characteristic in their future life.

In conclusion, It can be found that the world is full of people who hold a higher value for social status and luxurious good, there are some people who respect honors, helpfulness and traditional norms and values.