A new take on evaluation, CCE pattern in the state of Telangana

Exams are here. Mug-up, by heart, memorize and reproduce in the exam. After all, we need good figures at the end of the academic year.Education in those days was figures in the progress card. If you get 95% marks you are the best student in the school.

I used to study the whole year day and night, and get just pass marks, where as my friends who study just a month before exams used to get excellent scores. Evaluation was merely concerned with facts delivered in the paper. Is this a right way to evaluate learning...?

The revolutionary change in the evaluation system has brought by the centre through CCE - Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation pattern. This enable the teacher to overlook all the qualities of the pupil through out the year. Starting from daily assignments, projects, oral and written tests, non-scholastic such as behavior, games, etc are counted in CCE pattern.
This is the first time for the state of Telangana implementing CCE pattern full fledged. Of course, they've come up with few more modifications in the CCE pattern.



Few highlights -

• It's not semester model
• 80 marks for written exam and 20 marks for internal assessment(projects, home works etc)
• Questions are designed in such a way to test seven skills of the kid - information, communication, appreciation, aesthetic sense, application to daily life, experimentation, field investigation
• Questions given at the end of the text book will not be seen the exam. Instead they're asked in different scenarios.
• In evaluation, teachers should consider all the answers from students' point of view

There are so many questions arising in every nook and corner. Teachers got used to stereo type evaluation, this model will perhaps give space for bias in evaluation. Students got used to by-heart the content, they feel like out of water to answer application model questions. One should have minimum writing skills to answer an application model question. Few teachers argue, pupils of tenth standard will undergo mental trauma to digest this pattern as they got used to traditional model.

A small survey conducted in some schools, here is teachers' view on the new CCE pattern -

Related links:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/cce-learning-beyond-textbooks/article6655765.ece

Invigilation duty

I have got a chance to invigilate annual examinations for high school. The most boring job in the world is invigilation. It’s a big pain in the knees, neck and eyes- we need to stand and roam around the exam hall continuously for 2 and a half hours; keep eye on every student and turn both directions frequently. I have been seeing this stereotypical practice since my childhood.

Its physical science exam, pupils are literally bewildered at questions given in the paper.

Absolute silence in the school can be seen only during exams!

Discussing the questions with their peers, in front of a hawk eye invigilator!