Teachers criticize evaluations under CCE

New Delhi: The results of the Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) Class 10 Exams have stirred up a controversy over the
evaluation of papers under the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation
(CCE) system.

Several teachers have criticized the CCE, even though government
schools have performed quite well in the Class 10 examinations, as
revealed by the results that were announced on Tuesday.

The pass percentage for Delhi region this year is 98%, which is a
whopping 9.5% more than last year. The government schools too, have
outshined their performance in previous years with a pass percentage
of 99.03%, which is better than that of private schools with 98%
passing the exams.

The Board indicated that the implementation of the CCE system has made
passing the tenth grade a cakewalk for most students. The Class 10
board results have also shown the highest one year increase in the
pass percentage ever.

However, according to teachers, the CCE results do not indicate that
the current batch of students is exceptionally bright or that the CCE
is a better method of evaluation than others.

A teacher from a leading South Delhi school said that the pressure to
perform was now on the teachers and the evaluation procedure in most
schools was not very fair. "Teachers get hauled by the authorities if
the result in a class is not very good. For this reason, teachers give
marks as freely as they can to save their own selves," the teacher
said.

Since the Class 10 results were declared on Tuesday for the Delhi
region, principals of schools in the capital and the Delhi's education
minister Arvinder Singh Lovely have expressed their elation because of
the good results.

On the contrary, several teachers from government schools grieved that
the quality of education had decreased drastically in the past decade.

Under the CCE system, performances of students are evaluated
throughout their school period rather than for just one year. For the
class 10 results, the performance in class 9 is also taken into
account.

The students' performance is assessed in two ways, one in the form of
in-house exams and the other is done all throughout the year via
tests, assignments and project work.

The certificate that will be awarded to students of Class 10 for this
year would contain not only the grades but also a detailed description
about how and why the student has received that grade and their other
skills.

Education experts too, have alleged that the CCE system is not
foolproof. Shyam B. Menon, an education expert and vice chancellor of
Ambedkar University said that a certain amount of liberal marking has
been done which has increased the danger of having exaggerated
results.

"It is required that we look at pass percentages differently. They now
indicate only that a student has completed 10 years of their
education," he said.

According to Menon, there is a strong need for impeccable monitoring
and inspection system. He further added that when the middle class
population avoids government schools, the capacity to negotiate in
terms of quality disappears.

"In the absence of that, what we need is a less penalizing but a more
effective inspection system so that teacher's do not feel threatened
and also do their job well.