A test for the times

CBSE makes a welcome move away from rote learning. Schools must aim for their own balance.

CBSE makes a welcome move away from rote learning. Schools must aim for their own balance.

School reform initiatives in India have often criticised the emphasis on rote-learning and standardised tests,rather than creative inquiry or problem-solving. The HRD ministry announced a radical swerve in 2009,when it proposed a system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation rather than an obstacle race of yearly examinations. CBSE schools were to move to formative and summative tests the former conducted four times a year,comprising 40 per cent of the total,and two summative tests twice a year. These would be added up at the end,but the focus would shift from learning and spitting out vast volumes of material to a gentler and more thorough assessment,one that could relate book knowledge to lived observation. Under the summative test,the CBSE is now beginning an experiment with a new testing model for classes 9 and 11,called the open text-based assessment.

For a section of the exam,weighing 20 per cent of the total,it will provide study material in advance,across subjects,and then ask students to apply the concepts. The material could be diverse a case study,diagram,cartoon or picture. The questions will be open-ended,they will encourage students to draw inferences,extrapolate and argue their case. This is significant because it is a formal departure from the usual exam format,with multiple-choice questions,which saw education as a cumulative body of facts to be mastered rather than a set of tools to acquire,use and relay that knowledge. Of course,this is an old face-off in education policy,between those who stress fixed content,didactic classrooms,periodic testing and competition,versus those who believe that problem-solving,analysis and communication skills cannot thrive in such an environment. While Asian countries often look to the free-form innovation of Western schools,they acknowledge the relative rigour of our system for the basic grounding in maths and science and the virtues of memorisation. Instead of debating a good way and a bad way,schools must balance these two impulses.

While the change initiated by the CBSE is undoubtedly for the better in Indian schools that lean heavily in one direction,the real effect can be observed only in practice. A stimulating learning environment relies on teachers,peers and parents as much as the curriculum and testing methods. Students have to be trained for employability as well as for abstract skills,and schools should be able to place their priorities accordingly. The CBSEs attempt to remake itself is worthy,but we should be wary of a one-size-fits-all approach.