Competency tests a mess: City schools
HINDUSTAN TIMES SCHOOL NOTES IS ON FACEBOOK State education department blames problems on technical difficulties
MUMBAI: When the state’s new Pragat Shaikshanik Maharashtra programme, which involved conducting competency tests for Classes 1 to 8 to assess students’ basic skills in the first language and mathematics, was introduced six months ago, educationists believed it will help in improving the poor learning levels of school students across the state.
However, the frequent delays in conducting the tests, evaluation, the indifference to the tests by schools that follow national and international curriculums and the state government’s recent decision to conduct only two out of the three scheduled tests, have diluted the programme’s objectives, said academicians.
Last week, state education minister Vinod Tawde announced that the education department will not hold the first summative test, which was scheduled in December. Tawde cited the hectic schedule followed by schools in December and the time consumed in issuing e-tenders for the exam material as the reasons for scrapping the test.
Such problems have plagued the programme since its inception, largely because of a lack of planning, complained city
schools. Although the baseline tests were conducted in September-october (after being delayed thrice), the government has not yet come up with an analysis of the performance of schools. “Schools also complained that they were having a hard time uploading students’ marks into the SARAL database. “The website was too slow, we were finally able to upload our marks
only recently,” said Deepshikha Srivastava, principal, Rajhans Vidyalaya, Andheri.
Principal secretary of the education department, Nand Kumar, blamed these problems on technical difficulties. “We have not been able to complete the gradation in different districts and schools are also finding the SARAL database slow because of a capacity problem at the state data centre,” said
Kumar.
Kumar said that once the problem is resolved, even parents and students will be able to access the results. “We are planning to migrate to the government of India portal, once that is done, we will be able to come up with performance reports for clusters (15 to 20 schools) in every district,”
Non-state board schools questioned the relevance of these tests. “Our syllabus, especially in the primary section, is very different from the state board schools,” said Rohan Bhat, chairman of the Children’s Academy Group of Institutions in Kandivli.
“So having a common test for all schools doesn’t make sense. We are completely indifferent to these tests and their results.”
Educationists said that the programme alone will not help in improving learning levels. “Just implementing certain programmes restricted to literacy levels and in bits and pieces is not the solution. To begin with, the government needs to define learning outcomes for every age and then frame a policy to achieve them,” said Hemangi Joshi, education manager at Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation, an NGO working in education.