Scrapping of Board Exams: An Urgent Step to Meet some Obligations!
Test rides are o.k. But the tests take any one for a ride.
A revolutionary reform announced in a hurry! Should we do away with our traditional board exams all of a sudden? Will the system-which got appreciation from none other than the president of the U.S to be allowed to deteriorate?
It has been four years of intellectual churning that has resulted in the scrapping of CBSE Board exams for class X and making it optional from the academic year 2010-2011. The action should not be seen in isolation and conclude. It is just a step in the direction of National Curriculum Frame work-2005’s recommendations. After studying the present status of education in detail, the NCF document has clearly spelt out the following guiding principles for effecting a change in the academic environs for realizing a knowledge society.
The committee felt:
a) The school system is characterized by an inflexibility that makes it resistant to change
(b) Learning has become an isolated activity, which does not encourage children to link knowledge with their lives in any organic or vital way
(c) Schools promote a regime of thought that discourages creative thinking and insights
(d) What is presented and transmitted in the name of learning in schools bypasses vital dimensions of the human capacity to create new knowledge
(e) The “future” of the child has taken centre stage to the near exclusion of the child’s “present”, which is detrimental to the well-being of the child as well as the society and the nation.
Based on the studies the committee wanted to specify:
a. What educational purposes should the schools seek to achieve?
b. What educational experiences can be provided, that
are likely to achieve these purposes?
c. How can these educational experiences be
meaningfully organized?
d. How do we ensure that these educational
purposes are indeed being accomplished?
The most important shift in the teaching –learning situation has to be effected with the following underlying principles.
a. Connecting knowledge to life outside the school,
b. Enriching the curriculum to provide for overall
development of children rather than remain
text-book centric,
c. Ensuring that learning is shifted away from rote
methods
d. Making examinations more flexible and integrated
into classroom life and, nurturing an over-riding identity informed by caring concerns.
It has to be noted that the NCERT and the CBSE have largely succeeded by implementing the first two guiding principles. In fact the new syllabi and the text-books prescribed in the year 2007 onwards adhere to the underlying principles. Thus the scrapping of board examination for class X students is a mere culmination of the reforms aimed and has not been done in a hurry to meet the 100-day project as widely perceived. The step taken by the HRD ministry is neither cosmetic nor has any hidden agenda.
But the task would remain incomplete if we follow the same testing methods even in the new, changed circumstances and hence the scrapping of compulsory board exams.
The apprehensions
Fear of exams is equally fearful as fear of no-exams. It is more relevant to parents who apprehend a dilution of quality in the studies. It is also true that students and teachers are divided on this vital issue while one group favours the continuation of the existing board exam and the other in favour of scrapping. The national debate on this that has been raging in the media for the past three months has created much awareness among the general public.
Change is always resented. Not that they are averse to fresh air but the familiarity factor makes them feel comfortable and fear dread walk on an un-trodden path. The apprehensions are not totally baseless considering the dilution of quality elsewhere. But at school level nothing is going to change drastically, and the schools would continue to exert positive stress on the learners as usual. The board has also envisaged continuous and comprehensive internal exams.
Board exams don’t make much difference from school exams. In fact school exams are far more reliable and statistics prove that children score comparatively less marks in the exams conducted at school levels. The well-thought decision aims at eliminating the pressure factor and increases the pleasure factor. None is going to be off-guard and the system will be strengthened further without any doubt.
07.09.2009
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