Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation

Continuous evaluation

Modern educational theory has battled with such obsolete practices of examinations for a long time. Its message is simple and clear: namely that children’s learning and development cannot be viewed in terms of a rigidly defined class structure, nor it can be fitted into an annual cycle of evaluation and promotion. The RTE Act represents the legal approval of modern educational thinking when the Act prohibits detention and requires that a child can join the school at any point in the year. The vision underlying the RTE Act is further clarified by the prohibition imposed on Board examination at the end of the elementary stage or before it. This vision is completely consistent with NCF which also recommends that there should be no Board examination at any point in elementary education.

‘Continuous Evaluation’ means that the  teacher’s work should be continuously guided by the child’s response and participation in classroom activities. In other words, evaluation should be seen as a process whereby the teacher learns about the child in order to be able to teach better, and ‘Continuous Evaluation’ becomes a strategy of assessment which is a part and parcel of teaching itself.

Comprehensive evaluation

The term ‘Comprehensive’ implies the capacity to view the child from a holistic perspective, rather than merely in terms of  a learner of different school subjects. A comprehensive evaluation strategy would imply that aspects such as the child’s health, self-image, sensibilities, etc. are also perceived in the context of development and growth. Conventionally these aspects are either neglected in our education system or as we now see in private schools, dealt with by using an arbitrarily devised grading system which conveys the impression that the teacher has judged the child according to a norm. It is the duty of the teacher to make every possible effort, through interaction and engagement, to observe and understand the child’s own nature. It is also important that the teacher does not judge the child’s nature. Rather, what is required is that the teacher notices the inherent potential of the child as a learner in the context of his or her nature. Training for careful observation and record-keeping will have to be organised and executed in a careful and academically sound manner, to enable teachers to fulfill the expectation of the RTE Act. For guiding teachers to observe a child’s behaviour and attitudes, a new initiative will have to be taken for developing relevant material which can serve as a basis for training programmes.

Report  of the Committee on Implementation of RTE and Consequent Revamp of SSA