Dear Sir,
First and foremost let me wish you and your readers a very happy and prosperous 2017. This is with reference to your editorial on CBSE X board examinations. I had earlier in 2013 published an article on the consequences of CCE in financial express. I have braved this rebuttal in view of my field assessment of the consequences of the scheme introduced in 2009 in class IX. I was in the seat of Director Academics but stripped off any say in decision making by creating a separate independent cell not routed through the office of the director academics but headed by an independent officer. I am not penning these few words to rake up any past issues in the internal administration of CBSE but with the sole intention of correcting any possible social pressures against the much awaited revocation of the optional clause in board examination by several stakeholders who had been helpless bystanders witnessing the damage that the implementation of the scheme had caused. Also through this effort of mine I wish to reiterate that it is not “either CCE or Board examination” but it is CCE as a path leading to any examination be it in academic institutions or in real life.
I would like to place on record that continuous and comprehensive evaluation was a component of the Board’s assessment process even before the current CCE. It used to be under the internal assessment component of the board’s report card. Further the board examination for the tenth class was one with the least challenges facilitated by continuous handholding along the academic process leading upto it. The CCE in the new garb was a never ending series of tests whose end outcome was always shrouded in unreliability since the board prescribed formative assessments (FA), summative assessments (SA), split the syllabus biannually, produced study materials for how and why of FA & SA, traits and subtraits in different disciplines, parameters of evaluation, typology of questions. Once again the discipline owners vied to impose infinity of parameters for learning and assessing in each of their cherished domains. For each of these they prescribed norms and started micromanaging the teachers’ task by prescribing standard operating procedures that were made an integral part of accountability exercises, mentoring, monitoring and so on and so forth. The whole was divided and subdivided and the parts never coalesced back. When one part of the exercise appeared to end umpteen other gaps became glaringly unattended. All these manuals were forced upon the teachers who were still not considered trustworthy. They were asked to write teacher efficiency/eligibility test in-spite of a B.Ed. The students whom they assessed were also not trusted and proficiency tests conducted by the board were made mandatory for the students to prove themselves. Even Principals were asked to write examinations in National curriculum framework etc.
Kindly read the article I have essayed and attached with this letter. There are no political affiliations but the thoughts are purely from an educationist’s perspective. If you deem it appropriate I request you to publish it.
Thanks and regards,
Yours sincerely,
Chithralekha Gurumurthy
Joint commissioner (Academic), (retd), KVS & former Director (Academic), CBSE
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