In a pathbreaking step towards reforming India’s school education system, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal is considering doing away with the Class 10 Board examination, and setting up an alternative evaluation system based on percentiles, not percentages.
Class X performs three useful functions:
1. Many students discontinue education after class 10. For then class 10 certicate is the only degree. If class 10 exam will not be mandatory, these students may not have any degree at all.
2. Certificate provided by CBSE for students performance in class 10, is uselful for a student wile applying for higher studies, jobs etc
3. It gives a good estimate on caliber of students. It helps students decides their carer.
Sibal told : “The Indian education system which is marks-centered and examination-based is a source of trauma for both parents and children... knowledge, like everything else, should be user-friendly, and the acquisition of knowledge should not be a stressful exercise.... Children should not be judged by percentages with an emphasis on learning by rote, and the whole system of examinations should be looked at afresh.”
Making Class 10 exams optional will mean that students who want to continue in the same school and do not need a CBSE certificate can choose not to appear for the boards. They will be judged on quarterly internal assessments. But students who want to move to another school after class X need to take the board exam.
Related to making the 10th boards optional, Sibal also wants to do away with marks and replace them with grades. Marks will be there but students will be judged on grades, he said. Sibal said his plan to bring all schools under a single national board exam after Class 12 was not part of his 100-day strategy. It is a long-term process. This is the direction that education should move to in the long run.
Do you agree with his proposal? Post your views here
Author: Amit Agarwal
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On 21 January 2010 12:29:41 AM Rafique Ahmad said :
On 26 October 2010 6:12:42 PM sumit tambe said :