JOIN USSeveral developments have taken place in school education over the last few years. One of them is the implementation of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in elementary and high schools.
Evaluation is an integral part of teaching-learning process. A teacher needs to evaluate not only the learners in the classroom but also his/her own teaching style, teaching methods and techniques, the curriculum in use and also the materials used by him/her. All these assessme-nts must contribute to the achie-vement of the desired learning outcomes among children.
What is important in assessment is the teacher’s ability to gather useful information about the child from multiple sources using a variety of methods, techniques and strategies. It is in this context that CCE gains significance. Several states have introduced CCE in their government schools since 2012-13.
Many studies have been conducted on the effective adoption of CCE in government schools. Results show that some significant changes have taken place in primary and high schools as a result of the introduction of the new assessment method. Te-achers seem to explore various resources for teaching, learning and assessment purposes.
The activities given in the course books, the exercises in the workbooks, some authentic materials such as newspapers, dictionaries, etc and the library are increasingly being made use of in schools. Also, CCE seems to have created awareness among teachers about the importance of both scholastic as well as co-scholastic aspects of the school curriculum.
In schools where CCE has been implemented effectively, factors such as small classroom size, teachers’ motivation and involvement in classroom pro-cesses, team effort, the head teacher’s role as school leaders and easy access to various resources have played a positive and significant role.
Records pertaining to the CCE are being maintained in schools in a seemingly uniform manner. However, studies suggest that the cumbersome ways of maintaining various records should be made easier and simpler and the amount of data to be gathered and recorded by the teachers should be reduced. Studies also point out that a majority of teachers still lack a clear understanding of the CCE concept. Also, CCE is being equated with more and more tests such as quizzes, unit tests, term end examinations, etc.
In spite of CCE’s implementation, there does not seem to be a remarkable progress in the learning levels of children in ma-ny government schools. Their ability to do simple arithmetic calculations, read and write in languages are still alarmingly low. It must be emphasised that skills in English language such as reading aloud, speaking, writing simple sentences, etc have not been acquired even among standard VII and standard VIII students in many rural schools.
Equally important is the fact that the information teachers have gathered through formative assessments is not being used by them effectively for bringing about a change in the teaching-learning process, that is, in the methods and techniques of their teaching and also in the learner’s attitude, behaviour and learning style.
Formative decisions
Formative decisions such as focusing more on a specific area of content, students spending more time on particular areas, designing supplementary activities, scaffolding and providing needs-based support, paying individual attention, helping children use different learning strategies, are not being made by the teachers.
The study also reveals that supervisory staff pay more attent-ion to the records being maint-ained rather than the classroom processes. There are, however, a few instances of supervisory staff observing lessons and given constructive feedback on the transaction of lessons. Awareness is necessary among the Shared Decision Making Committee (SDMC) school memb-ers and parents about the chan-ges taking place in schools, with a special focus on the evaluation procedures followed.
On the whole, CCE seems to be a viable alternative to traditional forms of assessment and is likely to bring positive changes in the student’s behaviour, attitude and learning. The effective and successful implementation of CCE depends on various factors such as class size, availability of resources in schools and teachers’ abilities to exploit them.
Also, regular mentoring by the supervisory staff and providing space and platform for teachers to share their experiences and innovative practices in assessment will go a long way in the successful adoption of CCE in schools.
(The writer is Lecturer, Regional Institute of English, Jnanabharathi campus, Bengaluru)