Dear Mr R K
Chaturvedi,
It is very
heartening to know that under your leadership CBSE is planning to make certain vital policy changes.
As a teacher
with a fairly long experience with CBSE schools, I am immensely happy to know
that you have decided to review the policies regarding the class 10 exams and
the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE).
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First of all,
please make the Board exams compulsory in class ten as it used to be
earlier. But make the exams more
meaningful. Assessment is not merely a
process for providing a certificate of merit to every student. It is to identify the skills and strengths of
students in the various subjects she has been learning for ten or more years. It is not very difficult to initiate an
assessment system that evaluates the knowledge and skills as well as creativity
of the students instead of merely checking bookish knowledge or rote
learning. In the last few years, CBSE
had made the whole assessment absolutely ridiculous by making the board exams
optional for grade ten students, making the question papers and particularly
the evaluation too easy or liberal even to the extent that they smacked of
ridiculousness. The consequence was that
students stopped learning. They didn’t
see any need for learning. Almost anyone
could pass the exams and that too with A1 or at least A2 grades. Most students of that age group are not mature
enough to understand the value of knowledge, skills and creativity except for
passing exams. Hence your idea of
revamping the assessment system is highly welcome.
The so-called
CCE has become a huge joke which puts more onus on teachers than students. In fact, most students don’t gain anything by
the activities carried out in the name of CCE.
There are exceptions, of course.
But those exceptions are the very students who will do well irrespective
of the system. In a country like India
where the classroom in most schools has 40 or more students cannot implement
CCE effectively. We need to think of
practical ways of working on the creativity of young students.
As an English
teacher, I would like to request you to introduce relevant lessons in the
textbooks. It is a tragedy that the
textbooks are not even revised for a very long period. For example, the lesson on Seemapuri and its
ragpickers (class 12) is absolutely irrelevant when Seemapuri today is nothing
like what it is portrayed as in the lesson which was written decades ago. The class 11 English textbooks including the
novel for supplementary reading are absurd to say the least. Most of the lessons are of little use in
teaching anything at all to the students of that age group. And the novel is quite silly for that age
group.
I am sure you
are the right person to revamp the system.
Wish you all the best in your endeavour to make CBSE an effective and
efficient Board of Education.
A Teacher
CBSE is frequently changing its policy. PSA came and went, OTBA is standing, ASL is working to enhance communication, etc. Circular after circular.... . CCE is just a burden on teachers as well as on students. Teachers became clerks. Always updating the grades of students. New Education Policy has to be introduced. Why so much experiments? Lets see. How these things go on. Let Almighty save the education system of India. Thanks for this open letter to CBSE Chairman! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYou are right: PSA, OTBA, ASL... an endless list of things CBSE introduced without any use for students. "Teachers became clerks." I hope the new chairman understands the situation clearly and makes the necessary amendments.
DeleteAs you have said, any new policy should be contemplated taking into account Indian conditions like the large number of students in each class. We cannot implement best practices of other countries blindly.
ReplyDeletePrecisely. Most of the recent experiments in CBSE were borrowed blindly from the west where teacher-student ratio is far less.
DeleteI agree with your comments. I think by removing stress on class X board exam, board has remove the desire to study from students. Even my daughter who was in class XI when such practice came to light, knew that she will probably not detained in class unto class IX. It is true that our students are burdened by study material. School bag probably wieghs more than student. Yet to remove impetus on exam and make students life easy must be replaced with suitable opportunities at different level. Because of slackness in class X board exam, many students fail to cope with studies in class XI and XII. I think serious thoughts must be given to revamp education system with suitable alternatives.
ReplyDeleteChildren are cleverer than adults. They know how to take advantage of every situation. And they did. They learnt how to avoid studies in the system that CBSE gave them with CCE and other farces. Children are not mature enough to understand the pitfalls that lay in their paths. It's time to change this dangerous system.
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