Officially released on May 13, the Khoj (search) study is the outcome of interviews with 1,482 teachers and 18 principals of 100 schools across four cities (Delhi, Chandigarh, Pune and Chennai). Its objective was to assess on-the-ground impact of the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system, implemented in 14,358 schools affiliated with the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — the country’s largest pan-India school-leaving (classes X and XII) examination board — since 2009. Commissioned by the Gurgaon-based The Curriculum Company (TLC), the study highlights several lacunae which are hampering the implementation of CCE.

Teacher orientation. There is considerable misalignment between teachers’ goals and CCE objectives. Most teachers interviewed said increased classroom activity, daily assessments, and reducing student stress were the priority whereas the prime objective of CCE is to diagnose and assess students’ learning needs through continuous evaluation, and accordingly develop teaching-learning strategies to improve performance. Teachers also don’t identify with the other aims of CCE — developing learner centric pedagogies and enabling holistic development. For instance, social science teachers in Chennai believe the prime objective of CCE is to improve the grades of below average students.

Teacher training. The common lament of teachers interviewed is that they weren’t put through enough training sessions, the maximum number being five per year. However, a large number of teachers skipped even these few training sessions. The study also observes that training sessions don’t provide for feedback.

Teacher workload. Teachers believe CCE has sharply increased their workload, given their obligation to maintain daily, weekly and monthly student assessment records. Daily assessments now take 34 percent of teachers’ time. This reduces time available for experimenting with creative teaching innovations. Moreover, high teacher-pupil ratios are hampering effective CCE implementation.

New assessment rubrics. Most teachers interviewed said they are not comfortable with the assessment techniques such as project work, games, puzzles, etc mandated for formative assessment. The freedom given to them to develop their own assessment rubrics has led to increase in ambiguity, errors and subjectivity.

Parents’ ignorance. The objectives and details of the CCE system have not been adequately communicated by school managements to parents, who are alarmed by the rise in the number of academic and non-academic assignments. Parents of academically advanced students are unhappy with the assessment framework as the grading system lumps 99 percenters with 90 percenters. Parents also believe there is a strong element of teacher subjectivity involved in assessing the co-curricular skills of students and are apprehensive about teacher prejudices creeping into assessment.

Source: Khoj (The Curriculum Company & Learnmile)