CBSE and an annual ordeal for teachers
India’s Central Board of Secondary Education [CBSE] is one the largest education boards in the world. It operates over 27,000 schools across India and 28 other countries serving about 6.4 million students. Maybe such enormity of size makes it terribly inefficient in some matters. The assignment of assessment duties to its teachers is one area where the Board has failed again and again. I pointed this out to the regional director of the Board in Thiruvananthapuram many years ago. The man ordered an enquiry against me instead of looking into the seriousness of the issue I raised. The principal of the school where I was performing the assessment duty was entrusted with the duty of inquiring about my credentials. I told her to write whatever she wanted. “What can that man do?” I asked the principal with unconcealed sneer. “At the most he can cancel my assessment duties and I will be happy for that.” Yes, my problem was precisely that duty. I was always given the duty in faraway pla...
