Skip to main content

CBSE’s Paradoxes




“Formative Assessment is a tool used by the teacher to continuously monitor student progress in a non threatening, supportive environment,” says CBSE’s manual on CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation – which is understood by many students as ‘Continuous and Carefree Entertainment). 

“Non-threatening and supportive” – that’s what the assessment is supposed to be when a teacher does it in the class.  What about the assessment carried out by the Board at the end of the session?

See the remark written by one of the CBSE students on the Board’s complaint board after yesterday’s math exam of class 12:

MATHEMATICS WAS F**K**G TOUGH
THE 2013 CBSE EXAM WAS F**K**G TOUGH TO WRITE!! :(
I DINT EXPECT THIS TPYE OF MATHEMATICS PAPER EVER :(
CBSE IS HARDCORE i should have tried some thing else,, wasted 2 years of my high schools in CBSE :(

It is written by a student who calls him-/herself maha dewayz.

There are quite a few other students too who have complained against the math paper though not in maha dewayz’s ‘CCE’ phraseology.  It seems the math paper in the Chennai region did not follow the normal CBSE pattern. 

The usual CBSE pattern is “non-threatening and supportive” to students.  In fact, one won’t find anywhere in the world a Board of Exams that’s more student-friendly than CBSE.  So what happened this time with the math paper in Chennai region?

A very close relative of mine who is a math teacher in a CBSE school in Kerala rang me up after the math exam was over to ask me whether the Delhi students too found it as tough as their Chennai counterparts did.  I asked the math teacher of my school who said it was quite “non-threatening and supportive” except for the value-based question whose phraseology was very misleading.  Of course, students like maha dewayz are likely to find value-based phraseology beyond their vocab. 

I wonder why CBSE did not follow with the math paper what they are asking their teachers to do with the assessments: be “non-threatening and supportive”?  My relative-teacher says that the umpteen private engineering colleges in the South might have bribed CBSE to renege on their exhortation to teachers about threats and supports so that the students won’t qualify for the engineering entrance tests which in turn would ensure a good rush to the private colleges.  I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true though I wouldn’t dare to make such an allegation.  But I think that values exist only as a 5-mark question in the exams in the academic world of CCE.

That’s one of the many paradoxes that peep out of the CCE edifice cocking a snook at people who still (shamelessly) possess sensibilities that may be too delicate for the world in which only one value really exists except in the value-based questions of CBSE.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Woman'n'BeyondMarch 21, 2013 at 7:22 PM

    Rights, values now exist only on papers. How can we blame younger generations. They are getting what we are serving them in practice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 21, 2013 at 7:42 PM

      I'm not blaming anyone, Meenakshi. Just pointing out certain things, which i find paradoxical and even amusing.

      Delete
  2. mandakolathurMarch 21, 2013 at 8:26 PM

    So, what you are saying is the exams may have been made tough enough to weed-in (???) students who would perform badly enough to warrant only a private engineering college.

    Am I right in my understanding? I am not at all sure.

    RE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 22, 2013 at 7:02 AM

      Even I am not sure what and why CBSE does certain things. The suspicion that CBSE may have the motive of helping private engg colleges has been voiced by many people, not just by me - in fact, I merely borrowed it from others.

      This post was written with a lot of cynicism in the ink. So you should have been the first one to grasp it :)

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 22, 2013 at 11:50 AM

    Well, for a student like maha dewayz, I suppose every paper is tough. There are spelling mistakes in his complaint. I believe if you prepare enough, u can do well, questions are never like out-of-the-world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 22, 2013 at 12:14 PM

      Yes, finally I have somebody who seems to think like me in this regard. The very simple truth is that if a student wants to study nothing will be insurmountable. Give me students who want to study and I will work miracles. Even God won't be able to save those who don't make the least effort to save themselves.

      Delete
  4. TheYoungBigmouth.comMarch 22, 2013 at 2:44 PM

    The one with the loudest voice is not always right. CBSE has been botching up for years, students have now more access to raise their voices. But policy makers need to look for long term solutions. Good or bad, our government has not woken up to social media feedback yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 22, 2013 at 4:38 PM

      The policies which we are following right now in the name of CCE are absurd. They shift the entire onus to the teachers. Students have little to do.

      But i didn't understand your first statement.

      Delete
  5. The MukhtiarsMarch 22, 2013 at 5:20 PM

    interesting read

    ReplyDelete
  6. Vishal RathodMarch 23, 2013 at 10:45 AM

    I don't know what to comment on this but yaa once in my engineering the same thing happened . Every question was out if syllabus and person who just by attempting them , even though the answer was wrong , got the marks.

    Younger generation is too forward to accept these kind of errors in a decent way .

    Nice Information for new bloggers . Thanks for sharing

    Travel India

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 23, 2013 at 11:04 AM

      I know my cynicism must have confused you. Cynicism comes in when the people who are responsible for the pathetic state of affairs refuse to do anything meaningful... The students are also not innocent these days. The complaint I've quoted is representative of their attitude...

      Delete
  7. UnknownMarch 28, 2013 at 3:46 PM

    Fist and foremost, I never believe that anything in CBSe can be "out-of-sylabus".
    Mathematics is supposed to be a tool to slve problems, so if you have expertise with the tool you can for sure solve the problem.
    I find CBSE getting easier day by day and at the same time I find the quality of books/material going down in the name of getting student friendly.
    When I look at what people study today in class5 and compare it with my own time, these people are studying nothing.
    To top it all the "everybody should pass to avoid suicide" excuse has just killed it.
    Why not make students who will not suicide just because they got 9/10 rather than passing everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Topper LearningJune 24, 2013 at 10:48 AM

    It is really a great idea to use Formative Assessment as a tool by the teacher to continuously monitor student progress in a non threatening and supportive environment.

    CBSE Maths

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownFebruary 25, 2014 at 3:35 PM

    Behind every successful student their is a good facilitator and his hard work.Teacher helps to make information easily available to them. CBSE decided to conducted Training programs for teachers to upgrade the quality education in schools in India. CCE Teacher training

    ReplyDelete
  10. Suresh.gOctober 13, 2020 at 2:37 PM

    Thanks for the informative article! waiting for your next post.- schools near my location.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
16 comments
Read more

The Call of Islamic State

A year ago, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) reported that about 4000 people from the West left their homes and countries to join the Islamic State (IS).  Many of them are women.  The reporters had made a special study of the women who joined the terrorist outfit and found that it was difficult to categorise which type of women were particularly drawn to IS. “While most of the girls are young, some as young as fifteen,” says the report,  “there are also mothers with young children who make the trip. Some of the girls have difficulties in school and are said to have an IQ below average,  but there are also women who are highly educated. It also appears that even though a relatively large portion of the girls had (or still have) a troubled childhood, there are some who come from families with no known problems with the authorities. Most of the girls come from religiously moderate Muslim families,  yet some converted to Islam a...
33 comments
Read more

The Plague

When the world today is struggling with the pandemic of Covid-19, Albert Camus’s novel The Plague can offer some stimulating lessons. When a plague breaks out in the city of Oran, initially the political authorities fail to deal with it as a serious problem. The ordinary people also don’t view it as an epidemic that requires public action rather than as individual annoyances. The people of Oran are obsessed with their personal sufferings and inconveniences. Finally the authorities are forced to put Oran in quarantine. Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, delivers a sermon declaring the epidemic as God’s punishment for Oran’s sins. Months of suffering make people rise above their selfish notions and obsessions and join anti-plague efforts being carried out by people like Dr Rieux. Dr Rieux is an atheist but committed to service of humanity. He questions Father Paneloux’s religious views when a small boy is killed by the epidemic. The priest delivers another sermon on the necess...
28 comments
Read more

AAP and I

Who defeated Arvind Kejriwal?  Himself or us? His party ruled for just 49 days.  They were momentous days.  He implemented his promise on setting up a number for reporting corruption; in two weeks instead of the promised two days.  He met people to discuss corruption issues, though the crowd was beyond his control.  He did what he could.  He would have done more if he could.  He put an end to the VVIP culture in politics.  The politician became aam aadmi.  Ministers started travelling in vehicles without the screaming red lights and horrifying screeches.  But the police had to go out of their way to provide protection to the chief minister.  Who defeated the chief minister’s vision that political leaders need no such protection from their own people? He revolutionised the admission procedures in schools.  Schools which charged hefty amounts from parents illegally stood to lose.  The aam aadmi would have g...
25 comments
Read more

Farewell to a Friend

This is a season of farewells for me.  I have lost count of the persons who have already left or are being hauled up before the firing line by the Orwellian Big Brother in the last quarter of the year.  The person, to whom we bid farewell today, however, had chosen to leave on his own.  He is going as the Principal of R K International School , Sarkaghat, Himachal Pradesh. Mr S K Sharma was a colleague and friend.  He belongs to the species of human beings whose company enriches you and whose departure creates a vacuum, notwithstanding the fact that Nature which abhors vacuum will fill it in its own unique ways.  Administration is an art for Mr Sharma, though he calls it a skill.  Management lessons, strategies and heuristics are only guidelines.  No one can manage people merely with the help of these guidelines.  People are not machines which can be controlled mechanically.  Machines work according to rules.  People do not d...
31 comments
Read more