Understand CCE better

The results of the school based examination of different schools have been declared. This I am writing in reference to the schools affiliated to central board of secondary education. By and large all schools are following the CCE pattern introduced by the board up to class X. The system has been in place for two years now and it is expected that all stake holders might have got a fairly good idea of the advantages of the new system of evaluation. There are discussions on social networking sites whether the CCE has been useful for the children and other stake holders? There are divergent views about the same. Some people are quite happy while others say opposite to that. Though we do not have access to any data which can suggest the validity of the new evaluation system and that is the reason most of the opinion is formed based on the input given by some people. I think we need to understand it better by assessing the same by using some reliable and valid method of survey. My personal view is that the places where CCE has been understood and implemented in the right spirit, the results have been good. And if the same has not been understood and implemented well then all can realize the outcome. I would like to share my experience while talking to the parents and the children from different schools. A child came with parents for the enquiry of admission to a particular school. The head of the school, expressed his inability in admitting the child because there was no vacancy in the class in which the admission was sought. The father was very keen that the head should have a look at the report card of the child. The child had performed very well all through the year. He got lower grade in one of the subjects though the performance of the child in co-scholastic area was excellent with all A Grades.  The head was very much impressed by the overall performance of the child and appreciated the child for the same but could not admit him because of the reason mentioned above. The head was told that the father was very unhappy with the child because he thought that the admission could not be granted due to his average performance in one of the subjects. The head called the father and made him clear about the reason and tried to convince that  he should not think much about the academic performance only but look at the overall performance of the child. The co scholastic part of the evaluation is equally important and should not be ignored while judging a child. The father asserted that it is the performance in academics which will make the child to get in some good professional college and not the grades in music or art and craft. The head of the school did try to convince the parent but it did not work and the child was made to devote more time on academics and reduce the wastage of time on co scholastic areas. In other cases also, when the children and the parents are asked to talk about their views regarding the effectiveness of  CCE, many of them are not able to give their views on the same. It shows that we have not been able to convey this very important change to the children and the parents. This is not the problem of the parents and children only but many educators are also not very sure about what they are doing and why, except that they have given the guidelines by the board.  I am sorry to state that  there are some stake holders who do not yet understand the full form and the meaning of  CCE.

When I talk about the teachers they are trying to cope up additional work of keeping the records which are more now, than before. Sometimes some of the teachers are not able to convince the child or the parent about the performance of the child in one or the other assessment. Major issue comes while a parent discusses the performance of the child in FAs and SAs. Till the situation is that the child had done better in FAs than SAs it has been observed that parents do not discuss in detail. But in case where the children had done better in SAs than FAs ; there they do try to find the reasons for the child not having performed well. Though most of the schools have good and transparent system of conducting the FAs but at times it becomes difficult for the teachers to recall the flaws in the performance of the child in the FA conducted a few months back. Here it would be good if the teacher could talk to the parent in the presence of the child that this was the activity or the task performed by the child and this was the performance. Not only this,the teacher must try to help the child to perform better or learn the things in a better way. If the parent is trying to understand the performance of the child in detail, the teacher should not feel bad, rather should be happy and thankful to the parent for his concern and support in the progress and the growth of the child.

the overall development of the child is equally important.  The education today needs to focus more on the values to be taught to the children and make them capable of utilizing their potential to the best of their ability. This has been proved so well that only IQ does not make a person successful in life but the part played by EQ is equally important. The co scholastic area of the teaching learning process helps develop the EQ which drives the individual to perform better in life. Let us all think very seriously about the role played by proper and quality education in the life of the individuals and the nation. My request and advise to all concerned would be to understand the concept of CCE and contribute to the best of our potential to make our children better human beings.