Excellence is Not a Destination but a Journey! An Interview with Jacob Tharu

Abstract

Jacob Tharu retired as a Professor from the Department of Testing and Evaluation Department of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (currently, The English and Foreign Languages University), Hyderabad, India, in 2002, after a successful career of three decades in the field of language testing and assessment. As he was born to teachers, it was no surprise that Jim, as he is fondly called by his colleagues and friends, chose teaching as his career option, but not before dabbling in science and computers. After his undergraduate degree, Jim took the GRE “just to find out what the exam was like” and received a good score. He applied to universities in the U.S. for an MA degree “just for fun” and landed straight at the Harvard School of Education! After successful stints with Universities in the U.S and the U.K., Jim moved to India in 1967 and joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, as a lecturer. Six years later, in 1973, Jim entered the portals of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL), Hyderabad. Jim is an amazing teacher, an excellent researcher, and a passionate thinker of educational and language assessment. He started the first full-fledged course in language testing titled, Testing Language and Literature in CIEFL in 1975. The seeds of the then little-known field of testing and language assessment were thus sown in India and since then research interest in the area has been ignited. He was a research supervisor for several illustrious students and has had a lasting impact on students, the editor of this journal, Prof. Antony Kunnan, being one of them. He has delivered keynote addresses and plenary talks at national and international conferences, served as a member on several national committees oriented towards educational reforms in India and has contributed immensely towards reshaping the education system and structuring the assessment contours in India. In this interview, Jim talks about his early school and college experiences, how the field of language testing started in India, and policy decisions that were made in universities and public institutions regarding language assessment.