Examinations Are a Hindrance to Proper Education

Examinations are evaluative means for gauging students ' achievements over a medium to long-term period. Many schools administer teacher-built examinations as well as standardised examinations such as those administered by The Malawi National Examinations Board. However, there is debate among educators as to the importance of examinations to education. Hopkins (2009:15) acknowledges this debate by saying that “as with many educational dilemmas, the pendulum of the necessity of final examinations continually swings from needed to useless and back again.” Various reasons have been advanced to discredit the role of examinations in the education system. Among such arguments are that examinations encourage rote learning, and that examinations do not really measure intelligence, but only a narrow set of mental capabilities. Examination critics also argue that at times test results tend to be misinterpreted, abused and misused. Other educators, however, view examinations as an integral part of the education system. Such educators argue that examinations help in motivating students to learn and that they help governments to make important decisions that help in improving their education systems. Having carefully considered arguments from both sides, this paper backs the idea that examinations are a hindrance to proper education.
Firstly, an education system emphasising on examinations encourages rote learning. Because emphasis is placed on passing examinations, students learn test passing skills not life skills. Oosterhof (1999) asserts that encouraged by teachers and parents, students focus on learning strategies that increase their chances of inflating their test scores. These strategies range from looking at old tests to be familiar with the test format, learning which answers to quickly discard in multiple choice questions to learning rigid ways to phrase answers in order to get maximum results. The actual process of learning in preparation for an

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