[lg policy] India: School Education on A Turbulent See Saw of Policy Changes

Sun Jan 8 16:09:37 UTC 2017

  * MEGHNA GOYAL
<http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/ByLine/index/8/Young%20Citizen/MEGHNA-GOYAL>
* *Sunday, January 08,2017*

*NEW DELHI*: The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation(CCE) system of
grading the academic and non-academic, co-curricular performance of
students has been revoked and replaced with the boards system for Class 10.
Schools around the country were given a choice between the boards and an
inhouse system of evaluation, CCE, in 2010.

The seemingly sudden rolling back of the CCE system after only a few years
since it was first introduced has come as a shock to many. Schools had
earlier been given the choice between board examinations and conducting
in-house examinations that graded students both for their academic
performance as well as co-curricular activities. This move is as sudden as
the introduction of CCE first was.

The reasons cited for this move include confusion on the part of parents
and schools about the dual exam system, and that educational standards have
been slipping under the CCE system (according to a report by NDTV) among
others.

It appears odd, however, that the government and the Central Board of
Secondary Education(CBSE) did not take into consideration these factors
when first introducing the system that most schools seemed underprepared
and less than adequately trained for. Even till 2014, four years after CCE
was introduced, it was found that 35% schools affiliated to the board did
not conduct their summative assessments correctly while approximately 38%
did not conduct co scholastic assessments according to guidelines.

When the CCE was introduced, it was proposed that such a system would take
pressure off from students for performing well in academics, co-scholastic
areas would be given a weightage and the dropout rate would decline. It was
expected, widely, to increase the pass percentage of schools around the
country, both government and private.

This it did. For the year 2010-11, the pass percentage in schools under the
Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi, increased by 8.1%. It
was the highest ever (99.09%) and this was the first year where government
schools reportedly performed better than private schools (by 1.17%),
according to the Directorate of Education data. Such a dramatic change
coinciding with the year of introduction of the CCE system of evaluation
must have, in part, been its direct repercussion.

This visible improvement in the performance of schools, especially
government schools in the capital was a celebration of the CCE system. This
was the beginning of a trend. Government schools outperformed private ones,
in the capital till 2013. The pass percentage of students appearing for
class 10 examinations continued to increase as well, till 2013.

This promising trend, however, saw a complete, unexpected reversal from
2014. The pass percentage began to decline, as did the gap between the
performance of government and private schools in the capital. Reversals in
both these aspects, were not marginal. In 2015, the pass percentage
declined by 3% and private schools fared 3% better than government ones.

The last two years, therefore, had started to signal that CCE might not be
as great in bringing visible results as it had once promised. This was in
conjunction with the fact that the Minister for Human Resource Development,
Prakash Javadekar, favored making board exams compulsory for students in
the CBSE board as was the practice with all State boards.

The roll back of CCE, only five years after it was introduced, may not be
as surprising after all. Along with the reintroduction of compulsory board
exams, Javadekar has also said that the States will have the power to
decide whether or not board exams will be conducted in classes 5 and 8.
Until now, students could not be detained till class 8, under the RTE act.

Moreover, students will now have to study and appear for examinations in 3
languages, in classes 9 and 10. Earlier, students were required to study
two languages in classes 9 and 10, having made a choice between Hindi and
an additional language, which was often a foreign language, upon passing
class 8. However, in addition to compulsory Hindi and English, students
will have to study a modern Indian language- one of the 22 languages listed
in the Constitution.

If a student now wants to learn a foreign language, he may do so by opting
it as an elective and study it as a fourth language. This will, in all
likelihood, decrease the number of students who studied foreign languages
in schools in the country, taking away their choice.

Swift and sudden changes in policy for education in schools have become a
norm now. Unstable educational standards make it hard for schools, students
and parents to adapt. Instead of decreasing the stress for students and
making evaluation a process relatively easy to understand, the government
and CBSE only make it harder for students to understand evaluation as well
as increasing their course load with the three-language policy.

http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/OldNewsPage/?Id=9623&School/Education/on/A/Turbulent/See/Saw/of//Policy/Changes

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