IBPS EXAM Model Questions : ENGLISH LANGUAGE Set-7
Model Questions for IBPS CLERK, SO, RRB Exam : ENGLISH LANGUAGE SET-7
Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Right of entry to education, an ample teaching-learning environment, a
suitable curriculum and an empowered and all-encompassing faculty are four
essential prerequisites of an education system that seeks to enable social
transformation. While educational reform since the 1980s was strongly
focused on the first two elements, the late 1990s brought the role of the
curriculum into national focus. The critical link that binds these four
critical elements together the activity of the faculty - continues to be
cast aside, by political ideologies of most hues, contemporary curriculum
reform efforts and the professional practices of the faculty.
Far-reaching educational initiatives of both the Left and the Right have
recognised the potential power of the faculty. In multiple experiments, they
have used this dormant force to build committed institutions and cadres of
faculties dedicated to their particular causes. In many instances this has
led to extreme politicisation of the college faculty. In others it has led
to the education of a generation of students in halftruths underpinned by
the personal beliefs, sectarian concerns and folk pedagogy of faculties who
have had little access themselves to education and training in related
areas.
Over the last decade or so, educational reform has included, apart from
access, a focus on developing alternative text materials and the training of
faculty to handle these materials, without directly engaging with the issue
of curriculum revamp. At the turn of the 20th century, a major national
curriculum redesign was initiated following the change of political regime
at the centre. The subsequent development of college programme came under
wide public scrutiny and debate. Issues of equity, inclusion and exclusion,
learner medley religious identity and communalism gained considerable
importance in the curriculum debates that followed. For instance, scholars
argued that “...the curriculum, while loud on rhetoric, fails to address the
quality of education that students of underprivileged and marginalised
groups experience.” Several other critics described the revised curriculum
as a retrogressive step in education that sought to impose the religious
agenda in the garb of a national identity.
The subsequent change of national government in 2004 led to the curriculum
review in 2005, underlining a new political interest in the role of
education in national development, its role in social mobilisation and
transformation directed specifically at questions of caste and gender
asymmetry and minority empowerment. Deeper than these politically driven
initiatives, however, the professional need for curriculum review emerges
from the long ossification of a national education system that continues to
view faculty as “dispensers of information” and students as “passive
recipients” of an “education” sought to be “delivered” in four-walled
classrooms with little scope to develop critical thinking and understanding.
Q1. Revamping of the text material was the main focus in
(1) early eighties
(2) late nineties
(3) 21st century
(4) evolving curriculum framework
(5) training faculty
Q2. Which of the following best describes the meaning of the word underpinned as used in the passage?
(1) advocated
(2) supported
(3) prepared
(4) bolstered
(5) boosted
Q3. What hampers the critical thinking ability of collegegoing students?
(1) The emphasis on rote memorisation and recalling the facts of
education based on real experience
(2) Lack of political will to develop these abilities
(3) Absence of focus while designing curriculum frame work
(4) Ignoring the active role of faculty and the student
(5) Lack of proper tests of critical thinking ability
Q4. How did personal beliefs and folk pedagogy enter into educational system?
(1) The college acted as an agent of local communities.
(2) The faculties were not properly trained.
(3) College faculties started acting as passive listeners.
(4) The loopholes in the educational system allowed it to happen.
(5) It was by design.
Q5. Development of textbooks generated public debate on many issues except
(1) making the curriculum student-centred.
(2) using teaching community as an agency to bring change.
(1) Only A
(2) Only B
(3) Both A and B
(4) Either A or B
(5) None of these