Lack of clarity in specification of goals, aims and objectives in the syllabi of language courses and examinations in the country said Head of the National Testing Service (NTS) of India, Prof. Pon Subbiah

ALIGARH, September 24: Head of the National Testing Service (NTS) of India, Prof. Pon Subbiah said that there was lack of clarity in specification of goals, aims and objectives in the syllabi of language courses and examinations in the country.




Prof. Subbiah was inaugurating the regional field unit of National Testing Service of India at Center for Comparative Study of Indian Languages and Culture at Aligarh Muslim University. He said that the language is given due importance in high schools, while literature is considered supreme in degree courses. However, there is wrong assumption that people who know literature, know English as well.



Prof. Subbiah said that the objective of the NTS is to create a centralized mechanism for quality control and maintenance by evolving regional and national norms. He observed that the idea is to have independently worked out common reference point against which the courses, institutions and individuals across the country would be equated with, for maintaining inter and intra level comparability in view of the disparity, arising out of the diversified system of education being followed by various universities and school boards.



Earlier, Professor A.R. Fatihi, Director, Center for Comparative Study of Indian Languages and Culture (CCSILC) said that Professor Pon Subbiah is an eminent scholar, linguist and researcher in the area of education. He added that Prof. Subbiah developed instruments for evaluation in different Indian Languages for various purposes. Professor A.R. Fatihi said that this multi-Crore scheme has been implemented as per the approval of the Central Planning Commission and the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The objective of NTS India is to establish regional and national norms to raise standards for the programmes of study.



Professor Fatihi further added that the Regional Field Unit (RFU) AMU Aligarh has initiated the lecture series as a small yet important measure to the larger process of reform and changes in the area of testing and evaluation.



Professor Imtiaz Hasnain, Chairman Department of Linguistics, AMU, Aligarh presided over the function. In his presidential address, Professor Hasnain acknowledged the contributions made by Professor Pon Subbiah in the field of Testing and Evaluation and said that the contributions made by Professor Subbiah will have its impact on the Educational Linguistics.


Professor K.S. Mustafa proposed the vote of thanks while the programme was conducted by Dr. Mushatque Ahmad Zargar.

Mr. Pon Subeih regional field unit at Center for Comparative Studies of Indian Languages

A large number of faculty members, research scholars and students from the Department of Modern Indian Languages, Urdu, Hindi and Philosophy attended the programme.