Over 9,000 schools countrywide, affiliated with the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the country’s largest pan-India examination board, are set to switch to the continuous and comprehe-nsive evaluation (CCE) system in lieu of the annual examination for the remaining terms of class IX this academic year.
Next June/July CCE will replace the class X board exam as well. Under the new CCE system, the academic year will be divided into two terms (Apr-Sep & Oct-Mar) and each term will have two formative and one summative assess-ment for evaluation of scholastic areas. Co-scholastic areas will also be assessed though the quantum of weightage is not known as yet.
In a letter dated September 20 and circulated to the principals of all affiliated schools, CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi wrote: “A number of national committees and commissions in the past have consistently made recommendations regarding reducing emphasis on external examination and encouraging internal assessment through school-based continuous and comprehensive evaluation. Therefore, the CCE scheme brings about a paradigm shift from examination to effective pedagogy.” The board, while ordering implementation of CCE, also asked all principals and at least two teachers from every school to undergo training for implementing the scheme.
Though CCE was first introduced in 2004 by NCERT and CBSE for classes I-V and later extended to class VIII, the latest push comes in the wake of HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s fast track reforms, which inter alia involve making the dreaded class X board examination optional. Reads the ministry’s communication released after the 56th CABE (Central Advisory Board on Education) meeting on August 31: “CABE unani-mously endorsed the general need for reforms at all levels of education and felt that while there may be different view points on the pace and process of reforms, there was unanimity on its direction in the interest of children who are India’s most precious assets.”
Incidentally Sibal — who indeed delivered the Right to Education Bill in his first 100 days in office — while briefing media on September 10 on the status of the 100-day programme of his ministry, also introduced a system to replace marks with grades in classes IX and X of CBSE-affiliated schools. Henceforth students will be graded A1 (95 percent and above), A2 (90-94 percent), A3 (85-89 percent), B1 (80-84 percent), B2 (70-79 percent), C1 (60-69 percent), C2 (50-59 percent), C3 (33-49 percent) and D (less than 33 percent).
Now the all-India class X board examination is only for students of schools which don’t offer higher secondary classes (Plus Two). However it will be open to students opting for it for further vocational education or other purposes. “I don’t see a big issue here. If schools are capable of conducting internal assessment until class IX, doing the same for class X is no big deal. In a sense it is good because we have seen that while students prepare feverishly for the class X board exam, they lose the steam in class XI. By doing away with the stressful board exami-nation, the learning environment will improve greatly,” says Bharati Sharma, principal of Amity International School, Saket.
However, not everyone shares this enthusiasm for the quick switch to the CCE system. Comments K.J. Jose, principal of the Alwar-based, CBSE-affiliated Sagar School: “The speed with which the minister pushed his way to implement a system for which the education department, teacher trainers, teachers, and the country is not yet ready, is astonishing. Confused signals emanating from everywhere is creating chaos in the minds of people. Without a tested system of CCE in place, statements to the effect that class X exams have been abolished are very unprofessional. If decisions have been postponed in the past, there is no need for the HRD minister to take upon himself the responsibility to solve the ills of Indian education in 100 days. In particular, how will rural schools face the CCE challenge which is more difficult than preparing children for the existing board exam?”
While the hyperactive new minister has wowed the nation with his determination to cleanse the Augean stables of Indian education, academic opinion is veering around to the view that Sibal is moving too fast. Currently the much-hyped deemed universities probe is yet to be completed and the minister is confronted by the IIT faculty strike. And as his troubles multiply, already there is fear of the go-getting minister losing momentum and enthusiasm.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)
Imminent litigation bonanza
Even as the right to education Bill, 2008 — which makes it mandatory for government (Centre and state) to provide free-of-charge education to all children between ages six-14 and imposes an obligation on private schools to reserve 25 percent capacity in class I for poor neighbour-hood children in this age group — awaits the assent of the President, a new row has broken out on the issue of reserved quotas in private schools.
According to an Indian Express report (September 23), schools that have been alotted land by the government at concessional rates might now have to reserve almost 40 percent of class I seats for students of poor neighbour-hood households. Comments Kabir Mustafi, former headmaster of Bishop Cotton School, Shimla and currently a Delhi-based education consultant: “The whole percentage business with reference to underprivileged children is a tamasha, with the press going off at a tangent and the public not sure of what to expect. Our gung-ho HRD minister, I am sorry to say, has been jumping the gun quite unnecessarily.”
Nor is there any clarity on the issue of the per student tuition fee that the Union or state government will pay into the coffers of private schools. “The government declares that it will reimburse us at the rate of Rs.1,000 per child per month. But it is inevitable that bureaucratic procedures will delay the payment by months. By then we would be way behind in our finances, and infrastructure development will suffer,” says Madhulika Sen, principal of the Tagore International School, Delhi.
Moreover Sen wonders why the government “cannot get its act together” and upgrade its own schools. Particularly since the Centre has levied an additional 3 percent educational cess on all income tax payers. In Sen’s view it is “shameful” that a reservation policy should be in force 62 years after independence. “In no country does reservation spill over for more than two or three decades. The third generation does not need reservation,” she says.
Nevertheless, Mustafi concedes that “inclusive education” is an idea whose time has come. But he warns that the imposition of government mandated quotas in unaided, independent schools is a legal minefield. “The autonomy of private education institutions has been confirmed by the Supreme Court and several Acts of Parliament itself,” he says.
Meanwhile parents also voice apprehensions about the new quota provisions in schools. Says homemaker Ritu Verma, whose two children study in the city’s Sadhu Vaswani International School for Girls: “I think the right to education for economically weaker sections is definitely a good idea. However, the tuition fees for these children should be entirely borne by government so that the fees of other students are not hiked.”
With so many loose ends in the RTE Bill, which is all set to receive presidential assent, it’s unsurprising that lawyers in the national capital are looking forward to the Bill becoming an Act of Parliament with gleeful anticipation.
Kavita Charanji (Delhi)