Education News

In a significant move to bring reforms in evaluation and assessment system in school education, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is considering the introduction of self assessment system by students. If everything goes right, students may get a chance to assess themselves apart from the detailed assessment and feedback of their teachers on the annual performance of the students. All these are in addition to the present examination grades system.

The move seems to be a part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system introduced more than a year back. The students may also allocate more time to sports, arts and culture of their region if the CBSE’s efforts to more localize the syllabus got materialized. The CBSE is considering these reforms to be implemented gradually in 11,500 schools in India and abroad.

CBSE chairman indicated these reforms in an international seminar and disclosed that the parents also will have a major say in reforming the evaluation system. The Board has also likely to take views and experiences of various state boards and international experts before recommending any measure for implementation. Apart from giving importance to teaching, parent and teacher role has also been emphasized in the assessment process. The Board is also trying to bring reforms in curriculum through accommodating lessons on local history, arts, crafts and culture in mainstream curriculum.

In a significant move to reduce the burden of entrance tests on the students, a committee of vice-chancellors of Central Universities (CUs) has recommended to initiate Common Entrance Test (CET) for admissions to Post Graduate (PG), M.Phil and Ph..D Courses across 42 Central Universities (CUs) established by Govt. of India. The committee suggested that the same can be implemented to undergraduate level courses if the model works well for PG and Research Courses.

Another panel looking into the establishment of Nava Ratna Universities- an Indian variant of Ivy League varsities has recommended more autonomy and freedom to the proposed institutions. It sought direct funding from the Central government, freedom to fix salary, fee structure and reward system to faculty in these institutions. The Committee was set up by HRD minister Kapil Sibal last year. It suggested that the admission to all 42 Central Universities in the country should be based on a single common entrance test and performance in graduate examinations in the ratio of 70:30. Candidate’s marks in the first two years of graduation would be factored.

Scheme of the Test: The committee suggested that the entrance test will consist of two sections: 1. Scholastic Aptitude 2. Knowledge of Subject. The universities will have their own interviews for M.Phil and Ph.D Courses and they can decide weightage for interview, but it should not be more than 40 percent in any case. The committee proposed the entrance test should be conducted on rotation basis by Central Universities and an experts committee shall formulate the test every year.

Following are the snippets of recommendations:

1. Entry into Post Graduate courses should be based on performances in entrance test and in the qualifying / graduate examination. This should be in 70:30 ratio.

2. The entrance test shall contain questions on scholastic aptitude and knowledge of the concerned subject selected by the candidate for admission. These questions will be in the ratio of 40:60 weightage. That means 40 percent weightage for Scholastic Aptitude and 60 percent weightage for Subject.

3. In case of M.Phil and Ph.D course, the entrance test could be similar to the National Eligibility Test for Junior Research Fellowship conducted by the UGC.
4. Universities with special character / historical reasons could have their own admission process and free to lay down rules for themselves.