One of the important features of Right
to Education Act is introduction of Continous and Comrehensive Evaluation
System in order to make children stress-free, freedom from year-end
examination, assess students from various other perspectives like attitude,
aptitude, social skills, extra-curricular skills etc., rather than the
monotonous method of examination, which ever leads to the tendency to commit
suicide and try to eliminate rote-learning and cramming. Grading system, instead
of awarding marks, is another advantage.
The concept imported from the West is
certainly laudable.
Teachers’ ignorance and inadequacy of
training will be like a blind man guiding another blind man.
Indian schooling has the dubious
character of “One teacher school” which is about 12% to 17% overall. There is a
huge shortage of about 10 lac teachers, substantial number of untrained
teachers and part-time teachers of about 9.44%. Average student teacher ratio
in India is 42:1, much higher than RTE stipulation.
With so many impediments, can CCE
succeed? India is not Finland which ranks first in terms of quality education
in schools and the best talent comes to teaching profession, without any need
to evaluate the performance at any point of time.
CCE in India is a boon or bane? Time
alone will answer.
But there are many drawbacks too in the
system as of now. CCE introduced in CBSE schools two years ago is not fully
understood and appreciated by 67% of teachers and 58% teachers oppose the
system, according to a survey. It is possibly on account of sudden introduction
without adequate preparation. Thus educating, training and evaluating the
teachers are essential pre-requisites for the success of the system.
Secondly, there is a tendency among
students to make presentation of papers preparation of projects based on inputs
down-loaded from internet or copied from friends. Thirdly, parents are also to
be blamed as they readily substitute the children for project preparation.
