OpinionComment

Learningbeyondtextbooks
Disha Nawani

The Hindu
NO MORE CRAMMING: The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system which sought to bring reforms in the traditional
system of evaluation which placed students under enormous stress. Picture shows a student preparing for the board exams in New Delhi.
Photo: S. Subramanium

TheContinuousandComprehensiveEvaluationsystemmaysufferfromlimitations,butitisimportanttomoveawayfromanexam
centricapproach

A few toppers from some Delhi schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)have asked the
Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani to reintroduce the board examinations in Class 10. The main
argument presented against the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system was that it did not prepare
them for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Examinations for Indian Institutes of Technology and premedical exams. The students also demanded that content in the latest National Council of Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) textbooks be increased and reoriented towards clearing such exams.
Such grievances can be understood better if a perspective which regards schools as sites which select, eliminate and
celebrate the high scores of a few meritorious students, who succeed by virtue of the social-cultural capital that they
possess, is believed, as opposed to a view which regards schools as inclusive, egalitarian and just learning spaces. These
demands also reflect a belief which equates learning with performing well in exams. To understand these concerns
better, it is important to examine recent educational reforms initiated in India.
The much-awaited Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, besides making education a fundamental right for children in
the age group 6-14 years, also made it mandatory that no child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class or
expelled from school till the completion of elementary education. It also proposed Continuous and Comprehensive
Evaluation of a childs understanding of knowledge and his or her ability to apply the same and said, no child shall be
required to pass any board examination till completion of elementary education.
While these provisions were to be applicable to all schools in the country, the CBSE made the Class 10 board exam
optional for those students who wanted to continue studying in the same school. However, all students, including those
who opted for CCE, would still have a choice to take the on-demand exam. This was in keeping with the
recommendation of the National Focus Group Position Paper on Examination Reforms, National Curriculum
Framework (NCF), 2005.
Providingequalopportunities

In a country which is still struggling to universalise elementary education, the dropout rate increases while moving up
the educational ladder. In view of this, the purpose behind the no detention policy was to give all children, especially
the disadvantaged, equal opportunities to complete elementary schooling.

Theaspirationsof
studentswhowant
class10board
examinationstobe
reintroducedare
verydifferentfrom
millionsofother
studentswhoto
simplywantto
surviveinthe
educationsystem

The CCE similarly was a result of several years of deliberation and reflection. It
sought to bring reforms in the traditional system of evaluation, which had a written
exam at the end of the academic term, placing children under enormous stress. The
nature of this exam was such that it essentially tested students skills to memorise
and reproduce textbook content, which in most cases presented disjointed
information and facts as ultimate truth, with little relationship with childrens
experiences. The CCE on the other hand proposed a school-based, teacher-conducted
continuous assessment, which would extend beyond the cognitive domain, and
therefore serve as a tool for diagnosis and further learning. The idea underlying CCE
was to integrate assessment with teaching-learning, so that it would seamlessly be
woven with pedagogic processes, both inside and outside the classrooms. This
marked a significant shift from an exam-centric system which dictated not just the
way students approached learning but also determined the worth of knowledge.
Despite the child-centred focus and enthusiasm with which these reforms were
introduced, they were not only received uncritically, but viewed with scepticism as
well. In 2012, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) constituted a
subcommittee for assessment and evaluation of CCE in the context of the no
detention provision of the RTE. The committee, which was headed by former
Education Minister of Haryana, Geeta Bhukkal, pointed out in its report several
limitations in the implementation of these provisions, placing them in the context of

declining learning levels of children and migration of children towards private schools. The committee (not
unanimously though) recommended implementation of no detention in a phased manner, and reiterated the need to
link assessment of learning outcomes with promotion of students to the next class beyond Grade 5. The committee also
said that no detention was often misunderstood as no assessments or no relevance of assessment and therefore
adversely affected the drive to perform, as the policy seemed to indicate that performance did not matter.
It is important to ascertain the location and validity of such concerns. Both the CCE and the no detention policy were
meant to address the needs of especially those learners who are either disadvantageously placed or those who get
pushed out of the school system with a low self-esteem, because of the lopsided view of learning which celebrates
cramming of textbooks in examinations. The projection of such issues appearing in national dailies mistakes the
concerns of a bunch of high scoring students from a few elite schools from a metropolitan city as being representative
of all the student voices in the country. The aspirations of such students, which is to crack the prestigious engineering
and medical exams straight after school, is sharply different from millions of those aspiring to simply survive in the
system. It is this view of equating performance in exams with learning that the NCF 2005, and before that the
Yashpal Committee report, tried to address by differentiating between learning and knowledge, and reiterating the
need to view learning beyond textbooks. In line with this vision, the new textbooks developed by NCERT, post NCF
2005, recognised the agency of the learner, emphasised a constructivist understanding of knowledge and learning, and
endeavoured to make learning more meaningful by presenting domain-specific perspectives by which children could
relate to textbook content and make sense of the world around them.
Addressingchallenges
Having said that, it also does not mean that the no detention policy and CCE should not be examined critically.
However, it may not be legitimate to expect them alone to bring about significant educational reform, ignoring the
hugely deficit learning environments in which most schools exist, and also the challenging circumstances in which
most children learn. The CCE, which is conceptualised differently and is being implemented by almost all States,
suffers from several limitations both at the level of design and implementation, besides other school-related
challenges such as inadequate teachers, absent/irregular students, huge pupil-teacher ratios and lack of basic
infrastructural facilities. Similarly, the biggest challenge that the no detention policy faces is the need to address
learning gaps and suitably equip children with grade-appropriate competencies. There is also a problem when one
associates CCE and the no detention policy with no assessment, equates absence of board exams with absence of
learning, and confuses the achievement of educational objective with the success and glory of a minuscule minority
over the ignominy of several thousands of students who are mercilessly pushed out of the formal school system.
India has witnessed some very significant developments in the education sector in the last decade a long-pending
landmark RTE, an NCF which brought the child to the forefront and linked the problems of quality of education with
childrens experiences in schools, reforms in assessment, and strictures against use of corporal punishment. These
need to be seen in perspective rather than being viewed in isolation. Rather than dismissing them in haste, the
challenges confronting their implementation need to be identified, and mechanisms to support them need to be

evolved.
(DishaNawaniisassociateprofessor,SchoolofEducation,TataInstituteofSocialSciences,Mumbai.)
Keywords: Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system, exam-centric learning, competitive exams, exam
preparations, NCERT
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