CBSE Chairman Speaks on CCE System

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was set up with a mandate to prescribe conditions of examinations and conduct public examination at the end of class X and XII, to grant qualifying certificates to successful candidates of the affiliated schools and to affiliate institutions for the purpose of examination and raise the academic standards of the country, among others.

The prime focus of the board is to ensure innovation in teaching-learning methodologies by devising student-friendly and student-centred paradigms, reforms in examinations and evaluation practices, skill learning by adding job-oriented and job-linked inputs and regularly updating the pedagogical skills of teachers and administrators by conducting in-service training programmes, workshops, etc.

The CBSE has introduced a number of reforms in the school education sector. Our focus for the coming decade is on effective implementation of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for which the board aims to provide continuous training and engage in discussion with our teachers to build effective monitoring processes within the system.

CCE aims to make learning more interesting for students who are intellectually robust, lifelong learners with excellent problem-solving and analytical skills. India’s greatest asset in a competitive global economy is its young people who have acquired professional competence as part of the Indian system of education. We would like to widen this to reach out and bring in more learners into this fold. Reforms like CCE and changes to class X board examinations affect teaching and learning methodologies.

It is important that we recognise and respond to the concerns of educators and other stakeholders such as students, teachers, parents and principals. At every step of the implementation of CCE, we have interacted with all these stakeholders through questionnaires, both through the online and interactive mode. In fact, the survey was spearheaded by Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, and the findings taken into consideration while revising the CCE Scheme.
Teachers are going to play a very important role in the implementation of CCE, which is why CBSE is focusing on building the capacities of teachers in terms of the provision of professional development opportunities. Teachertraining is a vital component and the CBSE is building on the public-private model by empanelling service providers who will deliver quality in terms of both content and delivery.

CBSE will also be providing specific guidelines, training and guidance to support teachers in designing a wide range of creative activities for the enrichment and extension of learning. Online training programmes are also being planned and designed so that teachers who have already undertaken professional development can continue to train themselves at their own pace.
CBSE will conduct interactive sessions to update, guide and equip teachers in their implementation of CCE. The aim is to assist teachers to prepare assignments that will not only help students to better understand concepts but also promote their logical, criticalthinking and problem-solving skills.

The creation of an assessment paradigm that is diagnostic in nature, provides essential feedback about each student and helps in the allround growth is the focus of the CCE system. Although not a new concept, it requires changes in the way in which schools have been assessing their students and there are many on-the-ground issues that can come in the way of its effective and efficient implementation.

Question banks of question papers will be provided to schools to ensure quality and standard across schools. The question banks have been developed with the help of school teachers, subject experts and subject committees, with the test items moderated by senior teachers. We will be taking feedback from schools to further modifying the questions, where required.
Schools and teachers will be provided with summative assessments and marking schemes with directions on how to mark them. Monitoring checks at school level are being defined. Transparency will be the key to objectivity. Students will also be allowed to view their answer-scripts and, therefore, can seek an explanation regarding the awarded marks. Most importantly, we are planning to introduce group assessment for co-scholastic areas to ensure that assessments are objective.

The introduction of CCE does not mean less emphasis on academic achievements. Students will still be required to do well in studies. CCE in no way dilutes the emphasis on academics. In fact, while the assignments and projects assigned by teachers have to be interesting, they also have to be challenging for students. Summative assignments that CBSE is providing to schools include higher-ability questions, which will challenge students. We are also planning to offer an optional proficiency test for students who would like to assess themselves. This will have higher order questions in various subjects and also provide joint certification in collaboration with other institutions of repute in their chosen field.

CCE will not only reduce the stress students experience, but will also help them identify at regular intervals the areas of learning, which require improvement. This step will be initiated from the beginning of the academic session and students will have enough time to adopt suitable remedial measures and improve performance. The CBSE continues to provide a helpline and interactive sessions with stakeholders. Schools have been advised to hold counselling sessions for parents on different aspects of the CCE scheme. Parent-student workshops organised with the help and support of CBSE Sahodayas across all cities will enable trained principals and teachers to interact with parents and students.

While every school has its own unique environment, focus and resource availability, a collective experience with different schools would help us understand the possible issues a school could face. These inputs would be critical in ensuring that there is sufficient sharing, guidance and intervention that can be carried out to make CCE successful in schools. The overall approach for this exercise, therefore, is based on two major objectives — one, that the implementation of CCE has to be in letter and spirit, not just a procedure fulfilled on paper. Two, it involves working very closely with the actual resource base that can make CCE a worthwhile initiative, i.e., teachers and school leaders.

This involves understanding them, their views and their constraints (and finding ways to overcome them). Furthermore, in accordance with the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework (2005) and National Knowledge Commission (2008), it is felt that this is also an opportunity for schools to revamp the internal school assessments, especially in the area of  quality leading to enhanced learning.  One of the main aims of Monitor-Mentor (M&M) programme is to build capacity within the schools to implement CCE effectively.

This will be ensured through ‘Train the Monitor-Mentor framework.’ Monitors and Mentors will work as peer assessors. Each monitor is a principal who will be assigned three to six schools in the neighbourhood. The monitor will visit a school and document observations through checklists, interaction with teacher, classroom observation scale, self-review form and mentoring form on CCE. They will then mentor the school if required. A report will need to be submitted online to the CBSE. All the tools developed by the CBSE have been uploaded on the CBSE website www.cbse.nic.in Besides training and mentoring, we have also created an innovation cell to provide guidance for schools. We will be using a system of random verification to assess the quality of implementation of the scheme at the school level. We are also planning CCE awards for schools.

Now the CBSE is in the process of identifying agencies who will fulfil the basic criteria for recommending schools through rigorous accreditation processes. Accrediting agencies desiring to be recognised by CBSE can apply for recognition and empanelment. The defined norms will have to be adopted transparently by schools and any discrepancies found will lead to disqualification of the accreditation organisation. CBSE will also be making school visits to check on the establishment of norms.

Source : Mr. Vineet Joshi, chairman, CBSE to Times of India