CBSE
brings back boards, and Sanskrit, and Hindi
Issue: CBSE makes board exam mandatory again;
three language formula
Why were the board exams scrapped five years ago?
Class 10 board results determined many things of a
student’s future: Getting the
right combination of subjects of the next two years and a spot in a reputed
school. But this burden of expectation puts pressure on students and parents and this was one of the
main reasons for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to scrap the
Class X boards five years ago.
Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE):
The board exam in CBSE schools was scrapped by the
UPA and replaced with the CCE through year-round
tests and a grading system.
It was believed that the board exams stressed
students, tested their rote learning
and did not make allowances for
different types of learners and learning environments.
CCE was seen to be a year round process. It was
seen to remove the burden induced by board exams.
Problems cited in CCE:
* First, most other state boards still have a 10+2
formula and that there is a need to have parity
among boards for correct evaluation of students.
* Need
for a major exam: Second, along with the no-detention policy till Class
8 and this coupled with the fact that Class 12 is the first big test was
problematic.
* Third, teachers and parents wanted this change
to make their wards ‘exam-ready’
before they appear for the ‘big one’, Class 12.
Analysis of the move to scrap CCE:
Unfortunately, the stakeholders did not realise
the value of CCE.
In a piece in Hindustan Times, well-known
educationist Krishna Kumar explained why CCE failed to take root: “Lack of coordination and clarity on
roles and responsibilities expectedly resulted in systemic chaos.”
Moreover, teachers, many lowly paid, was not motivated enough to put in the
extra effort needed for CCE.
But why blame just the teachers? Parents also did
not see merit in a new system of learning, which is practised in many other
countries, but felt comfortable in the earlier system. The government and the
board were only too willing to scrap it.
The bottomline: Class 10 boards are back but two
key questions remain unanswered: How will the board deal with the pressure that
both students and parents complained about earlier, and second, who is
responsible for the failure of continuous and comprehensive evaluation system?
None of the above problems were difficult to
foresee. Appropriate strategies must have been adopted as somersaulting in
education policy can wreck generations.
XX
New Three Language Formula:
The CBSE has also asked the schools affiliated to
it to implement the three-language formula up to Class X.
The Union minister for human resource development,
Prakash Javadekar, has said that Sanskrit
will be “mandatory” for students in north India while students enrolled
in CBSE schools in south India will
have to study Hindi.
Javadekar has clarified that this should not be
seen as a move to impose Hindi. But when the HRD minister roots for one
language, the government stands the risk of reigniting old tensions over the
language issue. The decision on Sanskrit also defeats the original purpose of
the three-language formula: Teaching a modern Indian language, preferably from
south India, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi-speaking states.
Education, Language, Politics:
Almost every government change in the past 15
years has been accompanied by a change in education policy, whether that of
curriculum or related to examinations. The
T.S.R. Subramanian Committee on Education had warned against political
interference in education. Given that pedagogy has a political purpose, some
politics is unavoidable. But the wounds caused by the turmoil over the language
agitation in Tamil Nadu, for instance, have long healed and the government
should be careful to not open them up again in a state with a long history of
resistance to the imposition of Hindi.
Last Word: It is nobody’s case that the school
education system in India should not be reformed. But changes have rarely been
well thought out. Nature of education policy is such that the ends it achieves
only becomes clear after 15-20 years, by when it is too late to course-correct.
Reforms, therefore, must be very well thought out to start with.
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