JOIN USWhile the ICSE has not taken the revolutionary step of scrapping examination like the CBSE, many schools affiliated to it are leaving no stone unturned to reduce the burden on students.
Baldwin Girls High School provides remedial sessions as well as special coaching classes for the students. "Evaluating the performance of the student is extremely important. However, we follow a flexible system of evaluation," says Shyamala Bhadran, academic head of the school.
To reduce the academic load on students, the focus on annual exam and marks is slowly being replaced by grades in several school. For instance, Baldwins has already implemented grading system for middle school students as well as uses projects and assignments to check how much a student has understood.
"ICSE board has a very relaxed system," says Princess Franklyn, principal of St Johns High School. The board insists on two unit tests every year, but the system is very flexible, she notes.
Not all school managements agree that examinations should be scrapped. But many stress on the need for cyclic assessment. In recent weeks, several school managements have conducted unit tests for students. "Cyclic assessment is a better mode of evaluation. We also follow it in our school, though we have not done away with examination," says Nimmy George, principal of Clarence Public School. The Right to Education Act also stresses on continuous and comprehenisve evaluation of students till class 8.
But many school managements complain that they do have no clear information about the mode of assesment till now. “We have not recieved any kind of information from the ICSE board about which mode of evaluation should be adopted by the schools,”said the principal of a prominent city school.