New assessment guidelines issued for schools in Delhi
The directorate of education ( DoE) on Friday issued fresh assessment guidelines for government, government-aided, and unaided schools in the capital, to assess students “on the application of concepts in real life” as well ascertain “the impact of mindset curricula on their behaviour”.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said students will not just be evaluated on the basis of curricular knowledge, but rather on their ability to apply their understanding in a variety of real-life situations.
To be sure, the assessment will have no bearing — in the form of weightage marks or otherwise — on the promotion of the student to the higher class. Government officials said these guidelines will not be mandatory for private schools since not all of them offer the mindset curricula.
“In order to prepare students for the challenges of a world driven by information technology and to maximise their innate potential, schools must prioritise competency based learning,” Sisodia said. Besides scholastic and co-scholastic activities, assessment of mindset curricula will also be introduced in line with the National Education Policy of 2020 (NEP 2020), he said.
As per the new guidelines, students of classes 3-8 will be assessed on Happiness and Deshbhakti curricula, while students of class 9 and class 11 will be assessed on Deshbhakti and Entrepreneurship Mindset curricula. Students of class 11 will have an additional criterion for assessment based on their participation in the Business Blasters programme.
Government officials also said the content of these curricula will not be the basis of assessment — rather it will be the ability of students to apply their understanding and express the same in different situations. A portfolio component has been introduced, it said.
Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive School Conference ( NPSC), which has over 120 Delhi schools as members, said it was for the first time that the government has introduced guidelines for assessing students of classes 3 to 8. “While we have always maintained a portfolio for different subjects, these guidelines will be new for government schools. The only point in the guidelines which is new for us is the emphasis that is being laid on the third language. Aligning with NEP 2020, the policy is insisting on multilingualism wherein the focus is on the third language taken up by the student up to class 8,” said Acharya.
As per the issued guidelines, a student shall not be eligible to appear for the class 10 boards unless she has passed the third language in class 8.