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Bihar drops CCE, cites insufficient trained teachers
Citing a drop in learning, lack of trained teachers and a losing fear of exams in children, the Bihar Government has decided to drop CCE and revert back to the internal examination system.
Bihar state education board is dumping the Comprehensive & Continuous Evaluation (CCE) and reverting back to the internal assessment examinations in order to “inculcate a sense of competitiveness and some examination fear” in students.
While this may seem contrary to the objectives of the Right to Education (RTE) which mandates promoting every student, the Bihar education department clarified, that the assessment results will be discussed with parents, who will get an opportunity to monitor their wards’ progress and also be given the option of keeping their wards in the same class if they do not perform well in the assessment tests — monthly, half-yearly and annual.
Justifying the move, Bihar education minister Ashok Kumar Choudhary said, “We had been observing a slump in learning quality since the implementation of the RTE Act. With the former system of half-yearly and annual exam, there used to be a fear of examination. Though we are committed to abide by RTE Act provisions, we told the Centre 3 months ago that the CCE system has not been working for want of quality teachers.”
The minister said the competition from private schools was “tough” and “unless there is some strict evaluation system, our students cannot compete with the world. Re-introducing examination is one sure shot way to bring things on track”.
Choudhary said that from the new academic session beginning April, students from Classes I to VIII would take 3 sets of examinations – monthly tests for each subject and half-yearly and annual examinations of all subjects, carrying 50 marks each. While monthly tests will not carry any marks, teachers will make notings on “poor and average” students. He said the internal evaluation system would soon be implemented for Class IX as well.
A senior education department official said that the move to dump CCE was also driven by the results of an internal survey that showed huge learning and writing deficiencies among students. “The CCE idea was good but it cannot be realised,” the official said. “We have now got State Council of Educational Research and Training prepare question banks for all 3 sets of examination for the 2016-17 sessions. Now, teachers will have to act more responsively because they will be held accountable for monthly tests. Weak students have to be sorted out for more focus.”
Moving back to the internal examination system may seem retrogressive but if implementation of CCE is difficult for lack of appropriately trained teachers then the Bihar Education Minister may be right. We simply cannot implement blanket policies across the nation, ground realities need to be considered too. Having said that, the schools need to be trained and sensitised to use the internal examinations in the spirit of the CCE and not the same way of testing whether a child should progress to the next level or not. A point to be considered is that even before CCE was implemented Bihar has always produced the highest number of IAS entrants and toppers. Surely that says something about its schooling.