At a time when pre-university courses are functioning in full swing, a high-level committee has recommended that internal assessment (IA) marks for non-science subjects for I and II year PU courses be clubbed with the theory papers.

The 11-member committee headed by retired secretary Dr G P Basavaraju, which went into all aspects of IA, has suggested that the 10 marks earmarked for internal assessment in non-science subjects through work books, projects and assignments be included in the theory paper itself.

However, assignment and project work allocation in classrooms need to continue and a separate section be introduced in the theory paper for questions based on these assignments, the committee has said in its report which was submitted to government last month.

The committee was constituted to study the working of the IA system which was first introduced for PU in 2005-06.

The committee, after extensive interaction with the principals, teachers, students and educationists, has recommended that the present mode of classroom evaluation of internal assessment can be reintroduced once the government revamps the academic quality and infrastructure in PU colleges.

As far as science students are concerned the present system of 10-marks earmarked for practicals will continue.

60 per classroom
The committee has suggested that the government cap the student strength to 60 per classroom, discard shift system and do away with deputation of teachers.

On  the recommendation of an expert committee headed by renowned scientist U R Rao, internal assessment was first introduced both for PU students two years back. While science students had practicals, non-science students were introduced to assignments and projects for which 10 marks were earmarked.

As these marks had to be allotted internally by the colleges, teachers felt that they were not able to do justice or assess students due to the sheer numbers. 

With the average student strength in a PU classroom being 100, each teacher has to assess more than 600 students!

Further, the committee found that when it comes to correlation between theory and internal marks of second year pre-university students the gap is mind-boggling.

Speaks volumes
A whopping 41.5 per cent of the 1.09 lakh students who appeared for the II PU mathematics in the April 2007 examination had got 10 out of 10 in IA but a mere 6.04 per cent of the students could manage to score between 80-90 marks in the theory paper.

In Business Studies, 23.26 per cent of the 71,806 students who appeared for the subject this year got full marks in IA but only 4,717 students managed to score above 80 marks in the theory paper. In accountancy 24.28 per cent of the 71,806 students were awarded full marks in IA.

On the other side, while 36,778 students put up poor show in Mathematics theory by scoring less than 20 marks in the examination, only 0.44 per cent students were allotted zero marks in internal assessment. The committee has suggested that practicals be introduced for statistics and psychology subjects as well.

*Class teachers not to award IA marks in non-science subjects
*10-marks based on assignments and projects to be included in the theory question paper
*Practicals for all science subjects excluding mathematics to continue
*Cap student strength in a classroom to 60.
*Do away with shift system in running colleges
*Stop sending teachers on deputation