Involve students, their classmates and parents in assessment in Gujarat government schools: Expert panel

The unit test, which was one of the most opposed education initiatives in state government schools, was on in nearly 40,000 primary and secondary government schools with a more informal, experiment-based, continuous evaluation.

Along with the recommendation report, the committee has also prepared a format of Holistic Progress Card (HPC) for primary classes — foundational, preparatory and middle levels.

“The committee takes forward the National Education Policy 2020 that recommends that only teachers should not be evaluating the students, but all the stakeholders — students, their classmates and parents — should be involved in the self assessment process. The panel also suggested shifting of the weightage of evaluation from written exams to practical and written exams in equal proportion,” Jayendrasinh Jadav, educationist and Registrar at Gujarat Sahitya Akademi, Gandhinagar, who chairs the state-level committee, told The Indian Express.

Three sub-committees were formed — for Balmandir, Class 1 and 2; for Classes 3 to 5; and for Classes 6 to 8 — that had prepared three Holistic Progress Cards.

“The Chief Minister and the officials were very positive towards the report and the presentation given by the committee. Though a couple of suggestions came from them as well, we are hopeful of a decision soon as the committee has almost completed the task that it was formed for, till there are any further directions from the state government,” Jadhav added.

Education department officials stated that after the submission of the report, a decision on the implementation of recommendations will be announced.

Further, the committee has said that teachers should be given freedom to decide when to conduct tests other than the total of four exams held in an academic year (two in each semester).

“We have suggested removal of the ekum kasauti, which requires uploading huge data of each child. This is mere data entry for which human hours (of teachers) get wasted. It is a futile exercise as we are not using this data. Everyone felt that this takes up most of the teaching hours,” Mitesh Bhatt, president of Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh Gujarat, a teachers’ body affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), told this paper.

Other than Jadhav, the committee comprises ten other members, including representatives from primary and secondary teachers’ associations.

Following repeated protests, representations and opposition to the ekum kasauti by teachers as well as educationists since it was launched in 2019-20, the Gujarat government formed the special committee to deliberate on the assessment of students other than weekly, fortnightly and monthly tests.