Board won’t do away with Madhyamik exam

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, April 23, 2007
Although the NCERT’s focus group on examination reform wants to make taking the Class 10 board examination optional for those who wish to study further and keep the examination provision mandatory only for those who do not want to study further, the Madhyamik board may not adopt the suggestion in totality.
The NCERT will send the suggestion to all 41 state boards across the country soon. “We have not got the document yet. Let us have a look at it first. We are not very ecstatic about it, but we are not disregarding it either. The suggestions need to be discussed. I am sure there will be certain things which we will adopt,” said school education minister Partha De.
The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) is not keen either. “The NCERT can just offer suggestions but we will carry on with our existing system. If the state government wants us to follow certain sections, we will do that,” said board president Ujjal Basu.
The state body of the NCERT-State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) agreed with Basu. “We can just offer suggestions but the boards are autonomous bodies and it is not binding on them to follow our suggestion,” said director Rathindranath De.
The National Curriculum Framework made the recommendation in 2005 but the then state school education minister Kanti Biswas had vehemently opposed it, saying, if implemented, the quality of education in the state would go down. Biswas also felt evaluation at the end of class 10 not only helps a child understand his capabilities but also gives him a scope to upgrade himself.
Schoolteachers in the state share the same feeling. The state’s largest teachers’ organisation, All Bengal Teachers Association (ABTA), said the method if implemented would have disastrous consequences. “Education up to class 10 is broad-based. How can someone suggest that students not be evaluated after class 10? By making such suggestions, NCERT is playing with the students’ future and the education system of the country. We, definitely, will not allow that to happen,” said Shibaprashad Mukhopadhyay, ABTA general secretary.
The National Curriculum Framework had also suggested following a no-detention policy, which the NCERT is asking state boards to follow. The state school education department is ready to accept it, but with modifications.
“The question of detention does not arise if we can identify the weakness of the child and give him remedial teaching. And that is what we are going to do. We do not aim to take examinations to penalise a student but to help him upgrade his knowledge base,” said De.
WBBSE, from the new academic session, will introduce remedial teaching for students from class 5 to class 9. “The state government introduced the change in keeping with the suggestions made in the National Curriculum Framework. We feel remedial teaching is better than a no-detention policy,” said Mukhopadhyay.
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