Mixed response to CBSE’s exam tweak
dubai — Principals, teachers, students and parents have cautiously welcomed the examination scheme announced by India’s Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which will drastically alter the way students are taught and prepared for the final year CBSE examinations.
Now, formative and summative assessment patterns for grades 6 to 10 students will be discontinued. Grade 10 students will have to take compulsory board examinations with cumulative portions from the entire year.
Parents of students who have been asked to change overnight to the new examination module are skeptical and said more time is needed to prepare their children for facing the CBSE board examinations in 2018.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, the principal of a leading Indian school in Sharjah said the new CBSE system will make students and teachers work harder. The system of getting good grades for Gulf-based Indian schools and students will be a thing of past, according to KR Radhakrishnan Nair, Principal of the Sharjah Indian School. “Supervision and evaluation of examinations by the schools themselves will be over and rigorous preparation will be needed to get good marks in examinations,” he said.
Schools that opted for the CBSEI will discontinue the same from the coming academic year, said KRS Nair, former principal of New India Model School, Dubai. “It was a new initiative, there were no specific textbooks. The purpose was to develop students’ overall ability with the help of teachers who work as guides. Students could explore on their own. But the drawback was that they had to be monitored constantly,” said Nair.
S J Jacob, principal, Al Ameer Indian School, Ajman, and office bearer of Sahodaya, an association of 250 Indian school principals in the Gulf, said he welcomes the system which discourages students and parents from opting for schoolbased examinations instead of board examinations. “Moreover, teachers could not fulfill the CBSE expectation for continued evaluation of students as they had to handle about 200 students a day from 7.30 am to 1.30pm. Many teachers could not fully evaluate all the 200 students,” said Jacob.
“The new examination system will encourage study habits among students and when they pass out from grade 12, they will be equipped to compete effectively in competitive examinations,” said Jacob.
Dr Ashok Kumar, CEO, Indian High School, Dubai, said the new system will make students more analytical. And teachers, of course, will be geared up for the new system. As the CBSE International scheme has been completely eliminated, a new school branch of the Indian High School in Silicon Oasis will be used for mainstream students, Kumar added.
Teachers will be teachers
Teachers in the UAE have welcomed the move saying they could not find enough time to teach after handling the administrative work. “The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system was intended to provide an overall development of students throughout the year. However, teachers were busy maintaining students records and conducting weekly and monthly tests. It was more administrative work than teaching because we had to keep all the records,” said Anju Krishna, former mathematics teacher of Indian International School, Ajman.
She said even average students and schools used to get good marks because the weaker students were pushed to opt for school-based CBSE I examinations. The teachers themselves acted as teachers, examiners and supervisors, which affected the quality of education,” Anju added. Teachers were also not given proper training to meet the CBSE expectations from the CCE system.
“It is a good move for the students, teachers and parents. The earlier system kept teachers busy with non-teaching work. Learning by heart is practised to learn small lessons taught for one term. But in the new system, students have to study the entire year’s syllabus for the final year board examinations,” said Dr Sreedevi Rajashekharan, biology teacher at the Arab Unity School, Dubai.
Shelton, parent of a Grade 2 student of the Millennium School in Al Qusais said: “The Millennium School was selected as one of the pilot schools for CBSE International curriculum. The decision to change the curriculum could be good but students who are currently in Grade 9 will face a tough time.
sathish@khaleejtimes.com