In the wake of Class X Board exams being made compulsory for all CBSE students from 2018 and CBSE Board approving the restoring of Class X board exams, students, as well as teachers, are still struggling to keep up with the changes. In a recent development, some schools in Goa sought the CBSE Board to restore CBSE’s CCE and home based exam for stress-free progressive education. The Goa CBSE Sahodaya signed a petition to Prime Minister Of India Shri Narendra Modi Ji, MHRD Minister Mr. Prakash Javadekar and CBSE Chairman Mr. Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi.
In its petition, the Goa CBSE Sahodaya stressed on “Stress-Free Education” and quoted it as the main reason behind signing the petition. Recently, our Prime Minister had addressed the nation on exam stress for students and appealed to all stakeholders to play their part. Iterating the above words, Goa CBSE Sahodaya emphasized on the restoration of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) which was meant to reduce the pressure of board examinations on students.
It may be mentioned that earlier in 2009, the CBSE board had scrapped board exams for class X and had replaced it with Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system. Since 2011, the board made the Class X exams optional, after educationists objected to the stress associated with it. This was further replaced with CCE, however, students were given a choice to opt for board exams if they wanted.
As per records, about 20 percent of the students chose the board exam in 2011 and 2012. This figure increased gradually after it was made clear that students who wanted to change their school board after Class X would have to take board exams. In 2016, more than 40 percent students opted for the board exams.
As per the current Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, Class X students need to appear for six examinations only — four formative assessments and two summative assessments. This continuous evaluation system assesses the students regularly on academics and life skills which help them to remain focused on a daily basis.
According to CCE experts, the continuous evaluation system of students made the final class X examination limited to overall 30% of marks. At present, the Class X question paper comes off 90 marks, but the weightage of this paper is only 30% and the remaining 70% depends on how the student performed in the whole year. Few experts also claim that a student should not be evaluated with the three-hour examination in the last session of board examination
But now, with CBSE Class X board exams becoming compulsory from 2018, the weightage of marks in final examinations will be 80% and only 20% of marks will remain with schools. That means students have to work hard only for their final examination and involvement in school activities will decrease to only 20%.
The important scenario that has gained importance now is that students have to focus more on final board examination in Class X which will increase pressure on students as their whole future is dependent on the final examination of Class X.
Considering the above concerns that would pressurize students and push them to the stressful environment, the Goa CBSE Sahodaya has signed a petition to restore the CBSE’s progressive curriculum.
Goa Sahodaya started this petition to restore CBSE’s CCE with a single signature, and now has 49 supporters. However, whether the petition to restore CBSE’s CCE will be approved or revoked is yet to see.
