Making CCE Meaningful
Kirti Munjal
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
The NCF–Position Paper on Examination Reforms (2005) describes external exams as “largely inappropriate for the knowledge society and its need for innovative problem solvers as they call for rote learning and fail to test higher-order skills such as reasoning, analysis, lateral thinking, creativity, and judgment.” External exams make no allowance for different types of learners and learning environments, and result in an inordinate amount of anxiety and stress. Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is not new to the field of education. But the adoption of this concept for class X and the decision to do away with the board exams at the end of class X has come as a revolutionary change. However, CCE cannot hope to achieve its objectives unless teachers are able to create effective classroom situations for its implementation.
Creating classroom situations for CCE
In the scholastic domain, it is important that we create a foolproof system of ongoing diagnostics so that formative evaluation can be done in its true spirit. This can be through a variety of paper-pencil tests so that a learner can be assessed in various ways and remedial teaching can be planned. Concept maps and graphic organizers are other efficient diagnostic tools. Telling the students to put down whatever concept they have grasped during the course of a chapter in the form of concept maps or graphic organizers will give the teacher a true picture of the gaps in the learner’s knowledge of the subject. The age-old method of writing on slates can also be effectively used by a teacher for immediate feedback on her teaching. Other time-tested activities like show and tell, presentations, seminars, debates, declamations, quiz contests, etc., when used with proper planning help in making the classroom climate congenial for genuine formative evaluation.
The author is a secondary school teacher at Tulsi Public School, Ambala, Haryana. She is also a research scholar in education at the Department of TT & NFE, IASE, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She can be reached at kirti@tpsambala.com.