University reform
THE other day, we published a letter which Pandit Madho Ram has addressed to all educationists in the province, suggesting certain reforms in the examinations and curricula of the University of Punjab. The subject is of great importance; and, though the suggestions made by Madho Ram are by no means new, he deserves the thanks of the public for bringing them prominently before the proper authorities. The first suggestion that he makes is that “examination by compartment be restored for the BA examination.” The principal ground, as far as we are aware, on which the university did away with the compartment system in connection with the BA examination was its own convenience as an examining body. This is hardly a sufficient justification for the withdrawal of a reform which was largely valued by students themselves. The object of the compartment method is to develop a system under which students may be allowed to have their degrees by passing in different subjects in different terms. This is the practice followed by many universities in the West, and it is a matter of legitimate complaint on the part of the students that instead of moving in that direction, our university has gone back on the small reform that it introduced in its BA examination. The next suggestion made by Madho Ram is to make the vernaculars a compulsory subject in the intermediate and degree examinations of the arts faculty. The university has already to some extent recognised the importance of the study of vernaculars in colleges, and recently introduced it as an optional subject for the intermediate examination.
