The role of evaluation process in education By Manoj Kumar Karna  Generally when we say ‘evaluation’, the examination pattern comes in our mind. Of course, examination is an evaluation but it is not full evaluation. It is just a part of evaluation. Some years ago, many university teachers in Nepal were to mean by the words ‘question pattern, examination system, teaching methodology’ as the work of those who are belonging to the education faculty. Such university teachers also underestimated the teacher and students of education faculty just as ‘technician’ to make student the matter understanding ‘easier’ only because they lack the ‘content’ in the course material. So they are ‘weak’ in the content but strong in helping understanding to the student. But this article proves such thought as myth by basing on the teaching experience of today’s material in any classroom whether it be of science or management or law or humanities class. Surely, the education faculty needs to put the course content more in detail than mere introductory part of any age or theme or matter from the history. This columnist cordially informs the readers that he has only one-year B.Ed. experience of education faculty as a student where he has remained only a few years as science student in his initial college life but more experience of humanities faculty’s student. But what has inspired this columnist to assimilate the toiled works of evaluation in teaching is ‘zeal’ of teaching with ‘ethics’ but without ‘laziness’. Today’s humanities faculty in our Nepali universities are too following those “technician’s” pattern of evaluation in the semester classes for full measuring the potentiality of the students. It’s the reason the columnist feels easy job of teaching in comparison to other contemporaries. What is evaluation? Evaluation is an overall measuring process of a student throughout the academic session. This total measuring is not possible in a single sitting of the examination in the end of the academic year for around three or four hours which our universities, including Tribhuvan University, were following just some years ago. The time has come for all involved teachers in the university that the teaching job does not become over just delivering the lecture form the prepared note in the class. The teacher has to take notice that the passive listener student without writing practice will ‘take’ matter of teacher as a religious preacher gives to the devotees but it will ‘vanish’ after some hours or days. To make the student capable learning, the teacher must measure or help them enhance the learned thing to reflect in the sensible writing which becomes tomorrow the student’s base for any scientific investigation. Hence, writing work for student in the class is the parallel duty with listening, interaction in group, experimentation and so on. It is the reason; the universities’ new courses have the concept of ‘regular assessment’ of the students in writing which need the teacher’s regular checking of the writing of the students on certain pieces of writing with comments for improvement. So is the concept of the term paper writing or the proposal and thesis writings. If the student learns what she or he is doing, one will enjoy selecting any relevant topic of writing which is acceptable as per our country’s constitution and humanity. In this way, the small topic of writing at the Bachelor’s level of a student will be tomorrow base for her/his interest of thesis topic very easily and within the fixed period of time. So, the columnist feels in a teacher are all nothing but ‘zeal of teaching, teach with honesty and avoid laziness in teaching’. To be sharp here to define the term evaluation, a teacher/student has to follow regularity, punctuality in the class, group formation of student in the class, discussion, writing with comparison and assessment, doing research through writing and so on. Of course, a teacher will be following student-centred of teaching while doing these jobs so whether my teaching method is satisfactory or out of track is, now, matter of no relevance or matter of scared. A teacher must have to be aware of the course design and its evaluation process before entering any particular class in an academic session. The course of study provides the objectives and the nature of subject matter with some prescribed texts. So, the teacher has to be sharp that what are the several stages of evaluating the students throughout that period of that six months or the one year course material. For example, there may be ‘portfolio creation in the file’ of every individual student from beginning of the course period to end of the final exam, the ‘term paper/journal article’ writing, ‘class presentation’ on once or twice in the semester for personality enhancement in future, the ‘mid-term’ test before final examination, ‘practical examination’ in the case of science student, the ‘project work’ for management or science or other students, the viva-voce and thesis defense and so on. Now, dear readers, please, do remember your learning days when you were in a university or school class and compare your single evaluation in the final examination in the end of the academic year with these some evaluation processes of the students which are being followed in the university classes today. Are they only the duty the of the education faculty’s teacher? Or, do you feel that a teacher must do such duty for overall development of the student whose future is in your hand? What Chaucer Says? Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English Poetry, writes “That if gold ruste, what shal iren do?” that is, “If gold rusts, what will the iron do?” (line number 504, The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue). The quotation is very clear that the personalities like teacher, religious preacher, media person, lawyer, engineer, doctor or any academician are ‘gold’ of the society, and if these pillars of our society become dishonest and lazy in their profession, what other rest personalities of the country will do? If our students become lazy and dull due to we teacher’s inactivity in the class but they pass out by tallying from chit in the examination or just by memorizing as a parrot, what will be they useful for? Is there any future of such society? So, my plea to the teacher is to remember Chaucer and be full ethical in teaching profession for university is only such place which is like a furnace and produces the human resources for all lines including politics too. The moral politics, the moral government and the moral social other dykes are not possible without full morality of the teacher first in the class. (The writer is the lecturer in the Patan Multiple Campus, Lalitpur, TU)