CBSE’S NEW ASSESSMENT
METHOD
Students
of Classes IX and XI studying in schools affiliated to the Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE) will, for the first time, take the Open Text-Based
Assessment (OTBA) in March 2014. Through this new method of assessment, the
CBSE intends to “cater to the varied abilities of individual strength of
learners” as well as “incorporate analytical and theoretical skills” that move
away from memorisation.Teachers in Bangalore-based CBSE schools, however, feel
that there is a lack of clarity on the mode of assessment and the type of
teaching strategies that would be required to ensure that the assessment
achieves the objective.
According
to a circular issued to the heads of institutions affiliated to the CBSE, the
new form of assessment would be a part of the session-ending exam and consists
of 10 marks. Students will be given half-an-hour additional time to attempt the
OTBA questions.For the OTBA, students have been given material in the form of
case studies, diagram, picture, cartoon or a mind map, and the concepts will be
chosen from the syllabi. Based on the material given, the questions will be
subjective, creative or open-ended.Some of the themes for the OTBA introduced
for Class IX include planning a garden, information technology and values,
clean air – a shared concern, and migration. For Class XI, the themes include
medical tourism in India, Incredible India, Indian summer monsoon and the
Himalayan tsunami.Academics emphasise that the success of the new assessment
was “heavily dependent” on the teacher’s role.
J.
Anantha Padamanabhan, principal, Kendriya Vidalaya, M.G. Railway Colony, said
the new assessment demands a shift from the conventional way of teaching.
“Teachers need to be trained to make students think analytically. This is not a
mere fact-finding or information-gathering exercise. The OTBA aims to develop
an analytical line of thinking among students,” he said. As the themes are
broad, teachers said that there are several grey areas about how students need
to be trained. A National Public School teacher said teachers in his school had
not been invited for workshops. He added that teachers were “confused” about
how to break away from traditional teaching.A teacher from Delhi Public School,
who attended a workshop on the OTBA, said there was no clarity on the mode of
assessment. She said the board should clarify issues as early as possible as
the assessment had to be carried out in March.Students, on the other hand, said
the new system was unlikely to make a difference in the learning pattern as it
was being introduced at a stage when their learning methods would have already
set in. A Class XI student of The Deen’s Academy School, Jahnvi Chauhan, said,
“The CBSE has introduced several new programmes, from Continuous and Comprehensive
Evaluation to OTBA; they are introducing these concepts without providing any
clarity. When our teachers themselves are unsure of how the assessment would
be, how can we prepare for it?” she said.Sources in the CBSE Regional Office,
Chennai, said schools could contact the academic wing of the CBSE Headquarters
in New Delhi for clarifications. They said the board would conduct workshops on
OTBA for teachers in the coming months.
Prof. John Kurakar
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