The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to scrap the internal marks component in the SSC board exams for Class 10. The move is one of several other minor changes announced by the state Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh on Thursday. The separate objective-type questions component will also be removed, the minister announced.
The internal marks component had been introduced as part of the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) method prescribed in the RTE. KS Lakshmana Rao, MLC from the Krishna-Guntur constituency, says that activists and leaders working in the education space had demanded that the internal evaluation component be scrapped, as it had led to malpractice by private schools.
“Instead of actual assessment, private schools run by corporate groups simply assign full marks to their students with no evaluation at all,” he alleges.
Administrators of both government and private schools seem to agree that the internal marks component had led to fraudulent practices by certain schools, putting the remaining students at a disadvantage. YV Krishna, the principal of Abhyasa Vidyalayam, an alternate education space in Vijayawada, agrees with Lakshmana Rao.
“For language learning, there was a 5% component in the internal assessment where students had to pick a book from the library and write a review, on which they were to be graded. Most private schools in the state don’t even have a library, so clearly there’s manipulation. The rest of the marks were also being manipulated in most cases since it’s just a matter of uploading them online. So removing the component is a welcome move,” says Krishna. Krishna says that while the intention behind CCE is good, the consequences have been terrible because of the malpractices by corporate schools.
Implementing CCE in secondary education, particularly in board exams, seems to have been challenging. Even the CBSE has had an unsuccessful stint with implementing CCE in class 10 in the past, resorting to board exams again. According to a report on the implementation of the RTE Act, at the national level, only 58.46% of secondary schools have implemented the CCE.
As the ORF report explains, “CCE is a pedagogical tool used to ensure learning, with measurable outcomes.” Students are evaluated throughout the academic year on different parameters through different activities within or outside the classroom, without the stress of writing structured exams. The report attributes the low implementation to ‘lack of adequate orientation and teacher training.’
“On paper, CCE is a great concept. It focuses on activity-based learning, spaces out the measuring of learning outcomes and reduces stress on students. But considering the current status of the education system, it is bound to fail during implementation,” says Lakshmana Rao.
The other changes announced in the exam pattern included the removal of objective type questions, or ‘bit-paper’, as it allowed for cheating by students. While a separate question paper for objective-type questions was handed out earlier, each of the exams will now consist of two papers for 50 marks each.
“Cheating has become rampant in Class 10 board exams. Since multiple-choice questions make it easier to cheat, they have changed it to short, one-word answers. This might curb cheating a little, but may not ensure that it’s entirely stopped,” says Lakshmana Rao.
Krishna also feels that removing the objective type question paper is a superficial measure. “MCQs have been changed to one-word answer questions, but again, they (schools and teachers) will use the same guides to teach. The government should simultaneously be focusing on teacher training, curriculum, resources and capacity building in a way that learning is interesting. They need to address the problem at the root, why is learning and assessment even happening in a way that students need to cheat or are able to cheat?” he says.
Some of the other changes announced included an additional duration of 15 minutes for students to go over the question paper and to verify their answers, besides the 150 minutes given for attempting the exam.