| Chapter 1: | Introduction: The Importance of External Examinations in Education |
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This introductory chapter reviews the reasons why these various systems matter. It points out that external examinations are necessary as a quality assurance mechanism and supply important feedback on curricular effectiveness and teaching. External examinations may also fulfil an important certification function by allowing those who complete them to advertise that completion. The term secondary school graduate, when supported by an external examination, has lifelong meaning.
This chapter also points out that selection is a normal process of nation building and that standardized assessment of one kind or another is inevitable. It makes the point that the most important distinction is not between systems that do or do not have selection tests, but between those circumstances in which test items are well designed and the testing system is secure, and other circumstances in which the tests are poorly designed and the testing system may be corrupt. It provides information on the characteristics in which ‘education corruption’ occurs and provides illustrations of the consequences.
Why Examinations are Important
Since the time of Plato, it has generally been recognized that a key ingredient of a nation/state is how it chooses its leaders for technical, commercial, and political functions. It is understood that a nation would not prosper for long if leaders were chosen through ascriptive criteria, that is, on the basis of the characteristics with which they were born—race, gender or social status—or on the basis of inheritance (such as being the son of a king), military power (through force), or through political purchase by the wealthy. For modern nations to prosper, they must choose, so far as possible, future leaders on the basis of their personal potential for achievement.
On the other hand, fair competition to be a leader may contradict the natural tendency for families to protect and advantage their own children and relatives. Every parent would wish success for his/her own child; every group would hope for the success of children from that particular group. How can open and fair competition be balanced by the natural desire to advantage one’s own children? This is one function of public schooling.