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:

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

Ivan the unusual friend

When you are down and out, you will find that people are of two types. One is the kind that will walk away from you because now you are no good. They will pretend that you don’t exist. They don’t see you even if you happen to land right in front of them. The other is the sort that will have much fun at your expense. They will crack jokes about you even to you or preach at you or pray over you. This latter people are usually pretty happy that you are broke. You make them feel more comfortable with themselves even to the point of self-righteousness. Ivan was an exception. When I slipped on the path of life and started a free fall that would last many years before I hit the bottom without a thud but with enormous anguish, Ivan stood by me for some reason of his own. He didn’t display any affection which probably he didn’t have. He didn’t display any dislike either. There was no question of preaching or praying. No jokes either. Ivan was my colleague for a brief period at St Joseph’s
14 comments
Read more

Joe the tenacious friend

AI-generated illustration You outgrow certain friendships because life changes you in ways that nobody, including you, had expected. Joe is one such friend of mine who was very dear to me once. That friendship cannot be sustained anymore because I am no more the person whom Joe knew and loved to amble along with. And Joe seems incapable of understanding the fact that people can change substantially. Joe and I were supposed to meet one of these days after a gap of more than two decades. I scuttled the meeting rather heartlessly. Just because Joe’s last messages carried words that smacked of intimacy. My life has gone through so much devastating fire that the delicate warmth of intimacy has become repulsive. Joe was a good friend of mine while we were in Shillong. He was a post-graduate student and a part-time schoolteacher when I met him first. I was a fulltime schoolteacher teaching math and science to ninth and tenth graders. My dream was to postgraduate in English literature an
11 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
11 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more