Continuous tests an obstacle to learning?

Several schools in the city welcomed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decision to open itself up for feedback on its system of assessment. In an attempt to reform and strengthen testing patterns, the board issued a circular this week, seeking feedback from teachers, parents and students on the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system -a scheme that many schools want scrapped.
The evaluation system has been an issue of contention with many teachers feeling burdened with excessive paperwork. An English teacher of a private school in Mylapore said she had conducted at least 25 tests in three months. “While CCE has its benefits, learning is being comprised due to the pressure of multiple tests. Many of us cannot take time to answer students' doubts during a class because of a scheduled test,“ she said.
Introduced in 2009, CCE involves multiple tests both formative and summative assessments through the year instead of conducting one exam at the end of the year. Principal of Bhavan's Rajaji Vidyashram, Ajeeth Prasath Jain and board member of the Chennai Sahodaya School Complex said “The online feedback system has come as a relief for those teachers who felt this system was not favourable and wanted to share their opinion.“
Schools pointed out the existing tests were split into multiple ones thus focussing on individual skills but not allowing time to hone them. For example, English has separate reading, writing and listening tests, in place of the earlier method where all of this was woven into one question paper. “A student may be average in reading and writing but bad in listening. If he fails in one aspect, his grading in the other two papers will raise his average. So though the problem area is identified but not enough effort is not put in to rectify because students scrape through even if they perform badly in a few tests,“ said Aravind, a teacher of a private school.
While most students are against CCE because of the innumerable tests, some parents too feel the system creates undue pressure. “Every other day the child is expected to excel, this creates constant pressure. Where is the time for them to learn a subject when they have to constantly fear assessment,“ says Sarita Lal, a parent, who is for bringing back the previous mode of quarterly , half-yearly and final exams.
The CCE system is particularly caters to those who opt for the school-based exam in Class 10 level and some parents feel it assesses students in a holistic manner. Vijayalakshmi C, another parent.“The evaluation is not just based on written tests but there is a mix of projects and assignments which it is a good learning methodology,“ she said.