Article

Centralised Contemporary Education Dialogue

12(1) 5986
Evaluation Practices: 2015 Education Dialogue Trust
SAGE Publications
An Ethnographic sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0973184914556866
Account of Continuous http://ced.sagepub.com

and Comprehensive
Evaluation in
a Government
Residential School
in India

M.V. Srinivasan1

Abstract
The evaluation of students learning has been the central focus in Indian
schools for a very long time. Teachers and school administrators in most
schools train students from the very beginning to sit for the examinations
conducted at the end of Classes X and XII. The Right of Children to Free
and Compulsory Education (popularly known as RTE) Act, 2009 attempts
to ensure the availability of quality schooling and the provision of good
facilities for children in the age group 614 years. This is the first law in
India that has provisions for the evaluation of students learning, and has
led government agencies to prepare evaluation plans for implementation
in schools. The continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme,
recently formulated by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE),
is being implemented in schools affiliated to the board. However, the

1
Assistant Professor, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi,
India.

Corresponding author:
M.V. Srinivasan, Assistant Professor, Department of Education in Social Sciences, National
Council of Educational Research and Training, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi, India.
E-mail: mvsrinivasan@ymail.com
60 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

current CCE practices need a serious re-examination because they not

only thwart other curricular reforms but also because they are not in
consonance with the goals stated in the National Curriculum Framework
(NCF), 2005 and in RTE, 2009.

Keywords
Continuous and comprehensive evaluation, formative assessment,
summative assessment, scholastic assessment, co-scholastic assessment,
Central Board of Secondary Education, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya

The method for the evaluation of students learning in India, in spite of

efforts to reform it, has not changed much over the last three decades.
Schools are in pursuit of one major goal: preparing students for the board
examinations at the end of Classes X and XII. The examination results,
then, determine how and what children are taught from the time they
enter school. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
(popularly known as RTE) Act, 2009 not only attempts to ensure the
availability of quality schooling facilities for children in the age group
614 but also provides direction for the evaluation of students learning.1
This has led government agencies at both the central and state levels to
prepare an evaluation plan for implementation in schools.
This article, based on an ethnographic account,2 explores the processes
of continuous assessment as practised in a unique school system run by a
government organisation known as the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
(henceforth NVS). NVS was established as a follow-up to the National
Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. It is a centrally funded organisation,
with nearly 650 residential schools called Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya
(henceforth JNV) located in the rural areas of each district across all the
states except Tamil Nadu. The schools are affiliated to the Central Board
of Secondary Education (CBSE),3 New Delhi, and follow the continuous
and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) design provided and implemented
by the CBSE in all its schools. In this article, based on my three-month
stay during AugustOctober 2012 in a JNV in the central Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh, I argue that the CCE evolved by the CBSE, and imple-
mented in all the JNVs, deserves to be seriously reviewed. It not only
thwarts reforms initiated in other areas, such as curriculum development,
but is also not in consonance with the goals envisaged in the National
Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005 and in RTE, 2009.
This article has four sections. The first section is an introduction to
the CCE. The second section describes the schooling life in a JNV. In any
Srinivasan 61

institution, including schools, the assessment of students learning

involves certain stages, namely: (i) the development of questions and the
preparation of question papers; (ii) the administration of tests by teachers
and the taking of such tests by students, and the undertaking of projects
and activities by students; (iii) the evaluation by teachers of the answer
scripts, projects and assignments submitted by students; and (iv) the use
of mark/score/grade details for making judgements about the students
learning achievement. The third section describes what happens during
each of these four stages. The fourth and last section offers conclusions,
along with reflections and a summary.
During my visit, I observed classroom activities and interacted with
students and teachers when they were free, mostly in the evenings and on
Sundays. I spent time in the staffroom meant for teachers and interacted
with them when they were available. I participated in most school activi-
ties (such as staff meetings, farewell parties and festivals), and dined
with students. I lived in accommodation provided by the school. I noted
the happenings of each day and recorded the details electronically at
night. At times, I used a recorder to gather information and transliterated
it in the evening or at night. I interacted with the students regarding a
variety of issues, including CCE. In this article, besides a general intro-
duction to the school as I observed it, I also analyse a few important
aspects of CCE and of other issues pertaining to Classes IXX.

Continuous and Comprehensive

Evaluation (CCE): A Review
The CCE scheme was one of the alternatives to traditional examinations
evolved and tried out by the National Council of Educational Research
and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, in the late 1960s and 1970s in
government-run schools (Srivastava, 1989; Srivastava et al., 1978). The
origin of the term evaluation can be traced to the writings of Scriven
(1967, cited in Allal and Lopez, 2005), who examined the impact of cur-
riculum development initiatives on learning. This term, in the global sce-
nario, has been replaced by assessment when the object to be evaluated
is student learning in the classroom (Allal and Lopez, 2005). It deals
with the collection of evidences regarding the changes which occur in
the learners behaviour during the instruction (Rajput et al., 2003, p. 1).
On the basis of these evidences, interpretations and judgements regard-
ing the progress of the learner, certain decisions are taken. While taking
62 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

these decisions, the total learning environment of [the] school has also
to be taken into account (Rajput et al., 2003, p. 2).
Till the 1990s, only a few states had implemented the NCERTCCE
framework (NCERT, 2000). Rajasthan was the first state to pilot the
scheme in 1969, and was followed by Tamil Nadu (Srivastava, 1989).
Seeing the positive effects of the scheme as documented in various
research studies (Rao, 1986), the Government of India (GoI) introduced
it as part of the NPE, 1986 (GoI, 1986, p. 24). Following this, NCERT
published various documents to guide schools in the country regarding
the implementation of the scheme (NCERT, 1993; Rajput et al., 2003;
Srivastava, 1989).
The NCF, 2005 has led to a few initiatives to reform Indias school
examination systems.4 The first was the NCERT publication, Source Book
on Assessment for Primary Classes (NCERT, 2006b). The CBSE made the
Class X board examinations optional (NCERT, 2006c) and introduced the
CCE, an assessment framework in which students studying in Classes
IXX are subjected to two kinds of assessmentformative assessment
(FA) and summative assessment (SA). After RTE, 2009 came into effect,
the CBSE extended the implementation of CCE for Classes VIVIII in the
schools that are affiliated to it.5 The CBSE published a series of manuals
on CCE. Later, many states introduced CCE for Classes IVIII.
NCERT, as an academic body, creates resources for teachers and
schools to enable them to evolve their own CCE, while the CBSE, as an
affiliated body, prescribes a full-fledged scheme of CCE. The CBSEs
major contribution to the evolution of the CCE framework is the division
of the assessment of the so-called scholastic areas or curricular areas into
FA and SA, and the imposition of a rigid time frame for making each of
these assessments in schools. The CBSE assessment framework guides
all the activities that are supposed to be undertaken by schools, teachers
and students from the first day of the school year to the end of the assess-
ment period when the students are certified.
Certain aspects of CCE have received attention from scholars in
recent years, particularly those aspects described in the manuals brought
out by the CBSE because these publications are used widely by schools
and teachers in implementing CCE. Roy (2011) found that the guide-
lines for doing various activities force the school authorities to divide
students on the basis of their skills and to assign them ranks in a stereo-
typical hierarchy. This deprives students of the opportunity to learn new
skills. Also, the exemplar questions in the manuals encourage a return to
rote learning and fail to develop new and innovative perspectives among
Srinivasan 63

both teachers and students. The manuals do not make use of innovative
assessment practices, as recommended in the NCF, 2005-based social
science textbooks. Rather, exemplar CCE activities trivialise the con-
tents of the textbooks. A nuanced understanding of contemporary social
issues such as sexuality, patriarchy and issues related to Dalits is also
absent in these manuals. Students are deprived of opportunities to engage
critically with government policies. There is a potential danger that the
manuals can be used to reinforce the status quo rather than develop
skills of questioning, arguing, debating and discussing (Roy, 2011,
p. 24). The manuals dilute the NCF, 2005 perspectives built into the
social science textbooks. While defining CCE, Nawani (2013) writes,

One needs to recognise the fact that CCE is not so much about assessment
per se as it is about understanding the ways [in which] children learn, reflect-
ing on the teachinglearning processes employed in schools and empowering
both students and teachers in processes related to schooling. (pp. 3940)

Nawani notes that the CBSE manuals go against the spirit of NCF, 2005.
On the pretext of observing childrens behaviour as part of the grading
exercise in co-scholastic areas, the CBSECCE framework subjects chil-
dren to observation, surveillance and control. It also likely puts pres-
sure on parents to groom their children in the ways that are considered
desirable by the school (Nawani, 2013, p. 38).
Another study found that female teachers rather than male teachers
face enormous pressure in implementing CCE, but, nevertheless, have
a more positive attitude towards this process. One of the reasons for the
gender difference was the decline in the number of students going for
tuitions to teachers (Singh and Singh, 2012). Yet, there are not many
published research studies available on how CCE is practised in
schools. This article provides one such evidence-based ethnographic
account.

Life in the Narayangarh JNV:6 An Introduction

The aim of establishing a JNV in each district was to provide quality
education, along with all the requisite facilities, to children in rural
India.7 The school I visited is one of the oldest JNVs in Madhya Pradesh.
It was set up in the first year of the scheme, that is, 1986. Every year,
about 80 children are admitted in Class VI on the basis of an entrance
64 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

examination conducted by this school. There is stiff competition for

admission, with more than 5,000 students appearing for the admission
tests. The school follows the central government reservation policies;
75per cent of students from the rural parts of the district and 25 per cent
of students from the urban parts are given admission. A few coaching
centres in the surrounding areas offer services to help students clear the
JNV entrance tests. The majority of the children hail from a rural back-
ground, including farming. However, children of parents employed at
the lower levels of government offices and in schools (such as teachers)
are also increasingly vying for admission. Students from families above
the poverty line (APL) are charged a nominal fee when they enter Class
IX. Otherwise, the school offers free boarding and lodging for students
in Classes VIXII.
The school is located on a campus of about 40 acres. Students can
go home only during vacations, that is, twice in a year, barring unex-
pected events in the family or continuous ill health. Every Sunday, stu-
dents are allowed to meet their families, and the day takes on a festive
air. They don fresh colourful clothes to meet their parents and close
relatives who visit the school, bringing home-cooked food and snacks,
stationery and books and other essential items requested by the chil-
dren. During vacations, parents come and take their children home and
bring them back when the school reopens.
During my stay, about 540 students studied at this school. Nearly
40 per cent of them were girls. Each class has two sections, and each
section has 3540 students. All the teachers, students and other staff
members reside on the school campus. Students are organised under a
scheme called the house system. Each student in this JNV is attached
to a house and is looked after by the housemaster, who is a teacher.
Students reside in buildings named after the houses to which they
belong, for example, Nilgiri, Aravali and so on. Students of different
classes are placed in the various houses. Teachers perform the role of
wardens in typical residential institutions for which they receive a small
remuneration. There is also one assistant housemaster (who is also a
teacher) for every house. The housemaster takes the attendance of the
students in his or her house six times a day, from 5.30 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.
A typical day begins at 5.30 a.m., with the sounding of a siren and the
students then wake up. The housemaster is responsible for the health and
well-being of the children in the house. If a student is not well, the house-
master must inform the parents. From the day they enter the school till
the day they are taken away by their parents, the housemaster is account-
able for the students in his or her charge.
Srinivasan 65

CCE in Narayangarh JNV

Narayangarh JNV (NJNV) has been implementing CCE since 2009 for
Classes VIX (NVS, 2012). NVS as a school system is highly central-
ised, and each activity or move is directed from the headquarters located
at Noida, Uttar Pradesh, near Delhi. NVS communicates various modus
operandi regarding all academic and administrative activities conducted
by the school, including the implementation of CCE.
Under CCE, three kinds of assessments are conducted in this school:

1. Formative assessment (FA), which mainly includes: (i) assign-

ments; (ii) project work; (iii) activities; (iv) information technol-
ogy (IT) commentary and debates; (v) practical examinations;
(vi)submission of homework, classwork and copies;8 (vii) labora-
tory activities; (viii) multiple-choice questions (MCQs)/quizzes/
oral tests; (ix) conversational skills; and (x) book reading.
2. Closed-book examinations (pen-and-paper tests), SA and board
examinations.
3. Reporting on co-scholastic areas.

The nature of FA tests varies with the subject. For example, FA tests for
science have a practical component, whereas FA tests for the social sci-
ences and languages have project work and debate as components.
Teachers are required to assign tasks to students, to conduct activi-
ties, to collect projects and assignments, to award marks and to enter
the details of the marks in the formats prescribed by the school. This is
based on the format suggested in the NVS document. Each CCE activ-
ity is administered on the basis of guidelines disseminated by NVS
through its circulars and publications. Once all the details of the marks
have been entered in the prescribed formats, soft copies of these for-
mats are made. At times, one or two students do not submit the CCE
projects, and nor do they participate in the FACCE activities. In such
cases, as per the JNVCCE norms, the concerned subject teachers take
the responsibility of persuading the errant students to submit projects
or encourage them to participate in other alternative activities and fill
in the marks in the CCE formats. All these formats are first submitted
to the class teacher, and the class teacher then consolidates the marks
of all the students in his or her class for the different subjects. Finally,
the examination department collects the marks details of all the classes
and sends the information to the regional office, or the NVS headquar-
ters or to the CBSE.
66 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

Developing Questions and Setting Question Papers

within the CCE Framework
The aims of NCF, 2005 to reform the examination system in India
included efforts to change the typology of questionsto move from
text-based and quiz-type questions that encourage rote memorisation to
questions that develop reasoning and creative abilities (NCERT, 2005,
p. ix). The FA question papers are expected to be diagnostic in nature;
teachers are expected to understand and identify which students are not
able to learn and identify the reasons for this, and to take appropriate
remedial measures for enabling the mastery of learning on the part of
the students (Bloom et al., 1971). In contrast to this, the SA question
papers are expected to assess the students achievement of the course
objectives at the end of the session.
For conducting CCE examinations, two procedures are followed in
this school. All the FA question papers are prepared by the teachers
intheir respective subjects. In the case of SA examinations, the ques-
tion papers come from the regional office in Bhopal,9 that is, the SA
question papers are prepared at the regional level. The region in which
this school is located has about 80 schools. This means the SA question
papers are common for all the 80 schools. For Class VI, both question
papers are developed within the school by teachers. Also, teachers are
expected to understand the distinction between the questions to
beasked in the written form of the FA and SA tests. The questions for
the former are supposedly diagnostic in nature, and the questions for
the latter are supposedly designed to test the achievement of the learn-
ing objectives. However, I found hardly any difference between the
two tests in this school. To grasp this situation, it is necessary to under-
stand the conditions under which teachers are expected to develop
questions for the FA tests.

There is no difference between the questions asked in the FA and SA exami-

nations, says Kumar, an experienced mathematics teacher. Whenever there
is any doubt, students ask [questions] immediately and hence teachers do
not go back to what has already been taught and completed. Also, given the
nature and the amount of work for teachers in the school system, where is
the time available for reflection on, and correction of, ones own teaching
of an already covered topic?

SA and board question papers sent from the CBSE, or the NVS
headquarters or the regional office are in two languages: Hindi and
Srinivasan 67

English. Preparing question papers in a bilingual format as part of the

FA tests is a major challenge for teachers in NJNV. The science and
mathematics teachers prepare the question papers in English, as the
students write their examinations in this language. The social science
question papers are bilingual, as most students write their examina-
tions in Hindi. There is no Hindi typist available in the school. An
employee who can type in Hindi was also busy with administrative
tasks, and hence his availability was limited. This affects the quality of
the question papers, and undercuts the teachers enthusiasm for devel-
oping questions.
When I went to see Ravi, the postgraduate history teacher who taught
social science to Classes VIIIX, I found him preparing questions in
Hindi. All the questions that Ravi prepared are questions requiring rote
memorisation. I tried to help him in translating some material from Hindi
to English, and I found it was a difficult task. Ravi is an enthusiastic
teacher. While permanent teachers prepared question papers containing
questions with marks of two, three and four, Ravi included many MCQs.
He developed MCQs with three options. I told him to provide four
options as is generally asked in CBSE question papers. He said that
three-option questions are easy to answer. Ravi said:

Children are finding it difficult to work with CCE[there are] so many

projects, assignments, activities in each subject, and children are really tired.
We should [them] give some easy questions so that they are relaxed and find
examinations easy.

He wished to translate questions that he had chosen from Hindi-medium

reference books (books published by private publishing houses that
contain only questions and answers) into English.
On another occasion, Ravi said that he had completed the preparation
of the FA2 question paper by picking questions from reference books
because he could not find the time to set the questions on his own, and
promised that he would try to set questions on his own for FA3. Given
the wide availability of many reference books in the market, and given
the fact that the JNV teacher is already overloaded with many responsi-
bilities, the solutions found by Ravi are not surprising.
When the deadline for submitting the question paper loomed closer,
Ravi was given the responsibility for tasks outside the school, for
example, escorting school students to a sports meet in another JNV. He
had little time to devote to the assessment and ended up taking some
short cuts.
68 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

On another day, Ravi was asked to conduct the social science FA1 and
FA2 tests for one section of Class X, which upset him. This meant that
he had to develop question papers, conduct tests and submit the students
marks in the prescribed format.
A manual on CCE brought out by CBSE (2010) notes that one of the
objectives of the scheme is to make evaluation an integral part of [the]
teachinglearning process. This also means that teachers are required to
make assessment a part of their day-to-day classroom activityby ask-
ing students a variety of questions in class.

Why do we need to read out all the text by ourselves and explain [the con-
tents to the students] I asked Ravi. I suggested that where the Lets work
these out section of the Money and Credit chapter of the class X econom-
ics textbook was concerned, we could bring in our explanation during the
[classroom] discussion. He said, What you say is correct. I was taught in
the B.Ed. about all those thingsasking questions and making students
participate in the class. Here, sufficient time is not available to do what we
were told in the B.Ed. course.

Even after conducting many FA and SA tests, teachers have only a

limited understanding of the differences between the question papers
meant for FA and those meant for SA. Teachers regard FA tests more as a
series of tests rather than as a source of understanding of their own teach-
ing and as a means of identifying learning difficulties among students.
Also, they still feel that remedial measures are taken up immediately, and
not after conducting the FA tests. This understanding among the teachers
at this school is the result of the work pressure they face. There is no
need to type the FA test question papers in Hindi, yet the orders from
the NVS headquarters have led the teachers to waste their time and
energy on typing out the question papers rather than developing quality
questions.

FA Activities
All students of Classes VIX in NJNV are required to undergo four FAs
in a year. The FA in each subject consists of a test, the former unit test,
and a set of three or four non-test activities. Students are required to
appear for the unit test and to submit projects or participate in activities
as desired by the teacher. In this section, we examine how teachers assign
projects and activities, their reasons for doing so and their views and
perceptions about this.
Srinivasan 69

Doing Projects in Mathematics

Each FA in mathematics requires one test and four non-test assignments.
Sandhya Rani, a senior mathematics teacher for Classes VIX, gave the
list of projects and activities to students in advance. She said she was
able to differentiate between projects or models (made of wood) done by
students themselves and those that had been done by others for
studentsby parents, by carpenters or purchased from shops. In her
view, most students are able to do projects that require newspapers,
charts and colour pencils/pens. She also gave assignments (questions to
be solved by students, submitting a report on basic concepts by referring
to lower-class mathematics textbooks, etc.) as part of CCE. She felt that
all the five activities of each FA (including copybooks/homework and
pen-and-paper tests) were required in mathematics. However, she felt
that the number of projects could be reduced to one per year (currently
students are required to submit projects four times in a year).
She recalled how an assignment she had given a student led him to
become popular among his classmates. Arvind, a Class IX student, was
given an assignment as part of CCE. He wrote down all the mathematical
formulae available in the Classes VIIX textbooks and submitted the
project. Later, when he moved to Class X, he realised that he could recall
all the basic concepts from the lower classes thanks to the project work
he had done in Class IX. Arvind helped his classmates when they asked
him for help with understanding the formulae or with finding solutions
to problems in Class X. Sandhya Rani was disappointed when Arvind
later opted for biology in Class XI. She had expected him to choose
mathematics as an optional subject.
Doing Social Science Projects
When I spoke to students about CCE in the social sciences, they described
the methods of a senior teacher who taught social sciences and also con-
ducted FA activities. My conversation with a group of students studying
in Class X is given next:

Last year, Mrs Pushpa taught social sciences to you. What did she do?
Student 1: When she was teaching lessons, we used to keep homework copies,
take notes and write question answers in the homework/copies. From [sic]
the class activities, we got numbers10 for FA1 and FA2. Numbers were
given based on [our] classroom activities. We submitted, in a file, one project
and an assignment which were done in [the] classroom during classroom
hours. There were only three activities in [the] social sciences. When there
was some map work or activity, work done in groups, discussion, during that
70 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

period, she asked us to point out something, awarded numbers and the work
got over. She sometimes brought maps and asked us to locate some place
or do some work with the map, and we were given numbers immediately in
the same period and we did not have to do anything before and outside the
class also.
Student 2: Pushpa madam got the work done well. The teacher who is teach-
ing now...cannot do that [the student pauses briefly and then continues]. She
used to ask us to make sure that the assignments and tasks were timely. Most
other teachers do not do that. Pushpa madam asked us to do projects on any
topicwhat we think. It could be on any social science issue related to any
subjecthistory, geography economics or political sciencefor example,
corruption issue, technology, paper mill. She used to say, collect full details
and submit [the project].

Later, I came to know that Pushpa had been promoted to the rank of
Vice Principal and had moved to another school. Pushpas initiative was
born out of her own understanding of continuous assessment, rather than
being based on the formats given to teachers in NJNV. Those teachers
who understand the real intentions of CCE are able to use the classroom
as a space for conducting FAs more effectively.
Ram Kumar, an experienced social science teacher, said that he did
not use any activity referred to or described in the NCERT textbooks. As
all the three social science FA activities (IT commentary, projects and
activities) are submission works, he asks students to submit these in dif-
ferent forms. Some students also do role play if they are not able to
submit PowerPoint presentation on a CD. Since Ram Kumar has an aca-
demic background in geography, I noticed that he assigned more and
more geography-related FA activities to his students. Ram Kumar
believed that instead of asking students to submit three kinds of assign-
ments (IT commentary, projects and activities) for each FA, it was far
better to reduce this number by asking students to submit any one
assignment for each FA. I asked him to show me the project topics in
history he had assigned to students. He said he did not do this when
teaching history. He generally did not ask students the in-text questions
given in the textbook. Instead, he preferred to ask questions spontane-
ously in the classroom.
Most social science teachers in India have studied only one or two out
of the four subjects (history, geography, economics and political science)
that are taught in Classes VIX. Ram Kumars bias towards geography
shows that NJNV students do not get a chance to do any FA activity in
the other three subjects. His sidelining of the NCERT textbook activities
Srinivasan 71

and of the in-text questions indicates that there is no certainty that the
innovations made in social science textbooks will ever be translated into
classroom practice.
Doing Science Activities
I noticed many students submitting science projects on flex boards incor-
porating innovative experiments and models. One day, I spoke to stu-
dents of Classes IX and X about the kinds of challenges they faced in
science FA and SA.

Student 1: For 10 numbers, we need to buy three flex boards worth `300400
each to do science projects. Up to Class VIII, there was only one science
teacher. She used to give only one assignment. Now in Class IX and X, we have
three subjects. All three subject teachers give three assignments and projects
differently. For one paper, we have to do three projects as part of every formative
assessment. For getting 56 numbers, we are required to spend `800. Teachers
ask us to do good projects in science and even then we get only 34 numbers or
we get grade A. Our grades will not increase just by this number.
Student 2: We do three projects, and if there is a small fault in one, one number
is deducted and we get only 9 numbers. For `800, we get only 9 numbers.
If we do not do anything, we get one number because teachers do not give
zero number and ask us to do something and submit it.
Student 3: This problem is severe in chemistry, which requires chemicals.
Chemicals are not available here. They are available in big cities and towns.
How they will be available in a village?
Student 2: The pressure put [on us] by science teachers is enormous. During
the last examination, we got two days leave prior to the science examination.
The physics teacher took classes for seven hours on each of these two days
and asked us to study other subjects in the house (dormitory). After taking the
class, he said, out of 17 hours in a day, study physics for five hours. When
will we sleep and take a bath? If we do not study other subjects, we cannot get
good numbers. Then they scold us again that we have not got good numbers.
For completing the writing assignments of one subject, one teacher suggests
that we write one page per day and says that we should do a project during the
one-month vacation. But we also have to think of other subjects.
Student 3: When one teacher asked students to prepare projects using flex
board, another teacher also told us that the next time all of us should submit
flex-board projects for his subject. You may be aware that in our school
three science teachers always fight each other. Because of their fight, we
suffer. When we had a lot of work, one teacher said [to us] you submit five
question answers as part of the assignment. Because of compulsion, we did
72 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

that assignment. After learning about this assignment, the second teacher told
us to submit 20 question answers as part of his assignment. Finally, we also
got the assignment from the third, the chemistry teacher, who told us to do
40 question answers.
On another occasion, the maths teacher gave us an assignment and told us to
submit it the next day. We were not able to do so. The next day, when we went
to the class, the teacher asked, when you were able to do the project work of
the other subjects, how come you were not able to do my project? Teachers
compare how much work other teachers have given and assign the work to us.
They think of us as a printing press.
Student 1: After the CCE came, teachers tell us that they are anyway going to
pass us. But look at our fingers. Every day, we have to write up to 12 oclock.
When we go the next day to the class, we do not understand what is going
on in the class.

Science experiments and projects are intended to inculcate the sci-

entific temper among students and to foster curiosity and innovation.
However, CCE activities only succeed in making students anxious
about the non-pedagogical implications of their project works and in
inducing stress about the number of marks they will be awarded, thus
encouraging students to do these projects in a mechanical and perfunc-
tory manner. Students views reveal how teachers misuse their author-
ity through CCE.
Doing Projects in Languages
CCE requires teachers to assign projects and assignments to students in
different subjects four times in a year. Not all teachers are able to think
creatively when it comes to assigning projects and activities to students.
The outcome of these projects, assignments and activities also depends
heavily on the textbooks used in a school. Chandru, an English teacher
who teaches Classes VIX, says:

I am not even able to guide students to do projects. When I teach in the class-
room, the students are not able to participate in the classroom activities. They
listen to whatever is being taught as though they were listening to stories.
All the NCERT textbooks used in this school are at the high level, meant
for English-medium students. My students are not able to answer the ques-
tions given in the textbook. The syllabus is tough and the lessons are lengthy.
Students are not able to cope with the teaching of NCERT textbooks. When
we start teaching, they go to sleep.
Only five (10 is the maximum) out of 35 students participate actively in the
classroom. Students answer [questions] when they are compelled to do so.
Srinivasan 73

Itry to make students do all the CCE activities in the classroom so that they
are able to understand what is happening. I write letters and application forms
on the blackboard, and the students copy these and submit them as project
works. Those who are able to copy correctly get better marks than others.
On most other occasions, students copy what the others have written in
their assignment. Due to this, they are able to score only 1314 out of 50
[marks]. Some senior students write essays copied from library materials
and newspapers. Since there is no grammar [lesson] in the NCERT textbooks,
all [the material] appears to be disconnected. Students write answers without
any coherence. Since students have to do a lot of writing as part of CCE, they
keep writing and submitting [copies and projects], and their handwriting is
not even clear. Since we have to go through so many copies and projects, we
are also not able to pay attention.

Devising activities for Hindi students is also a major challenge.

Kumari, a Hindi teacher who has been teaching for more than 20 years,
reported that, unlike other subject textbooks published by NCERT, Hindi
textbooks do not contain exemplar projects or activities. Mallika, a
Hindi-language teacher, told me that FA activities in Hindi have no con-
nection with the contents of Hindi-language textbooks.
Problems Associated with Project Work and Students
Inability to Cope with Them
One of the NCF, 2005 documents calls for teachers to convince children
or adolescents during their school life of the superiority of a life of virtue
over a life of vice and wickedness (NCERT, 2006a, p. 3). The following
incident shows that students have to grapple with certain realities in their
daily life in school that have deep ethical implications and that challenge
their sense of morality.

One day, I saw the librarian coming to [the] staffroom with a student. He
asked the student to talk to Ram Kumar, his class teacher. The student told
Ram Kumar about how another student had stolen this students science text-
book and cut all the pictures and prepared the project and submitted [it]. Ram
Kumar told me that if a student submitted project reports with pictures from
textbooks, he cuts two marks (out of 10).

There were reports of students stealing the textbooks of other students

and using these for their own project works, which goes against the life
the school is expected to provide. The CCE requirements in the residen-
tial setting compel students to do whatever they can to score marks.
Rather than looking for alternative ways of assessment, the teachers pre-
fer to punish the students.
74 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

Maintaining the projects and assignments submitted by students in a

safe place is a major source of anxiety and challenge for teachers.
Schools are required to maintain all the project materials for at least two
years. The teachers reported that the CBSE asks some schools randomly
every year to send the evidence of all the CCE activities conducted by
it and the marks details as hard copies. This means that more than 70 of
the activity materials (thermocol models, chart paper-based activities,
files, CDs containing PowerPoint presentations) of 7080 students are
required to be sent by post as big parcels. For students, the problem is
of a different nature.

Whatever the project we do, the teachers do not bother to take care of them.
They lose [the projects] sometimes in the school buildings or in the staff-
room. And if they do not get [the projects], [or] if they were torn up or lost,
they [the teachers] ask us to search [for the projects] ourselves [or ask us]
whether we have taken them. If the projects are not available, they tell us to
submit [them] again.

During my stay, I noticed that project work reports prepared and submit-
ted by students in previous years were stored in the staffroom and that
many of the project reports kept on shelves had been eaten by rats.
In sum, the number of projects that students are required to do as part
of each FA is not only more than what they and their teachers can pos-
sibly do properly and effectively (and in a meaningful manner), but this
also creates a lot of anxiety and stress among them. NJNV teachers also
misunderstand and misuse the purpose of doing FA activities. FA activi-
ties are innovative only sometimes. JNV students approach projects and
marks from a largely economic or utilitarian perspective.

Grading Challenges of Co-scholastic Activities

Although NCF, 2005 recommends that there should not be any division
between scholastic and co-scholastic areas (NCERT, 2005), NCERT
documents prior to NCF, 2005 and RTE, 2009 emphasised the need to
assess the co-scholastic aspects of students life in school (Rajput et al.,
2003). Co-scholastic activities (as given in the CBSEs CCE design)
have become one component of CCE, and students are assessed twice in
a year. The CBSEs CCE design seeks to inculcate thinking skills, social
skills and emotional skills; to instil respect for teachers, schoolmates,
Srinivasan 75

school programmes and the environment; to teach value systems; and to

encourage literary and creative skills, aesthetic and performing arts, club
activities, activities associated with health and wellness, scientific skills,
participation in sports/indigenous sports, National Cadet Corps (NCC)/
National Service Scheme (NSS), scouting, swimming, gymnastics, yoga,
first aid, gardening and shramdan.
A unique feature of schooling in NJNV is the involvement of chil-
dren in sports, music, dance and other cultural activities. A large
number of students participate in these events during almost half of the
academic year. In the period from April to October every year, many
students go out to participate in various events at NVS-run schools.11
Inthis school, sports, music and dance competitions are held for stu-
dents belonging to different houses on a regular basis. CCE grades for
sports as a co-scholastic area are awarded to students of different
houses on the basis of their performance.
An Afternoon of Cultural Activities
A cultural competition was held in the multi-purpose (MP) hall of NJNV
on a Saturday afternoon.

In the afternoon, I attended the folk dance competition held in the MP hall. I
was told by a teacher that the hall-wise scores of students would be included
in the CCE descriptors and in the grading. Bank benchers of higher second-
ary students were making noises (vizil) as if there was some village festival.
The older boys were standing behind. All the boys came and sat on the floor
when the principal came into the hall a few minutes before the end of the
programme and watched the programme. The principal said that this is a CCE
work, that she was trying to provide opportunities for developing multidi-
mensional personality of young students and that she should not have to listen
to such noise at the next FA competition. Later, she announced the results of
the competition.

At the conclusion of the programme, a teacher announced:

From tomorrow, there will be Sunday study classes in the school for students
of Classes IXXII. They should come to the classrooms (boys on the ground
floor and girls on the first floor of the school buildings) and study between
10.00 and 12.30 a.m., and between 6.30 and 7.30 p.m. Two (contract) teach-
ers will look after the students, and this [arrangement] will continue until
October. Class VIVIII children will sit in the junior boys/girls mess and
study. This is an order received from the authorities to make up for the loss of
working days during the last two months due to rain and sports.
76 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

The festive and happy mood of the students evaporated as they listened
to the announcement.
In NJNV, class teachers collect the details of grades, based on a five-
point scale, for co-scholastic areas from five or six teachershousemasters
and the teachers for physical education, arts, music and Socially Useful
Productive Work (SUPW). Usually, they collect the grade details after
completing all the work related to the scholastic area and prepare a con-
solidated mark list in the NVS-prescribed format, which is then sent via
the Internet to the NVS headquarters and the regional office before the
due dates. Although this grading exercise is supposed to be carried out
twice a year, it was done only once a year because of the enormous work
involved in the collection of grades from different teachers.

Paper (Answer Script) Evaluation

The new textbooks based on NCF, 2005 provide guidelines on the evalu-
ation of answers. The CBSE has also recently made available, online,
some of the best answers of students in their board examinations. The
scope and nature of these answers may require careful scrutiny before
being accepted and followed, but it is encouraging that some initiatives
are being taken to help teachers in the task of answer evaluation.
However, what I noticed in NJNV was different. The answers of the
students to a few questions are given in the following.

Earlier, you used to have unit tests. Whether you studied or did rote learning
or whatever you did in the examination, you got some marks. In CCE, besides
[sitting for] exams, you are required to do many activities also. What do you
think? Is it good, bad or what?

Student 1: We do projects and assignments under CCE. Some teachers give

numbers based on what we scored in the unit tests or in the FA tests. Suppose
in a unit test, out of 50, I get 25, then out of 10 (in an assignment), the teacher
gives only 5.
Does this mean that even if a student does an activity very well, good marks
are not awarded for the project works?

Student 2: Yes. CCE numbers are given on the basis of test numbers. If a stu-
dent does not write an examination well, his assignment number will always
be low and hence would fetch him only low grades. When they check copies
also, they look at the name and give the number [of marks].
Srinivasan 77

Student 1: Teachers give homework. They give one-month time for doing the
formative assignment. Teachers do not ask for anything. They keep quiet for
one month or 20 days. Nobody asks anything. When teachers are asked to
record marks and submit them to the school, then all of them come and tell us
to submit the homework assignment immediately. All the teachers sit on us
and tell us Now you give it.
Student 3: Most teachers do [it] like that. Now we have the FA2 session going
on. No one has asked us to do anything now. When the examination time
comes near, everyone will immediately give assignments and ask us to sub-
mit them immediately.
Even if we say that we do not want numbers, they do not put a zero number.
You have to submit something they say. Suppose a student gets 5 numbers in a
project/unit test and homework/copybook. If he says that he does not want to do
any project or assignment, they say take leave and do the project and submit it.

In regard to the matter of awarding high marks to certain students,

Laxman, a science teacher, provided a contrasting viewpoint: How to
give marks for projects to students when only five or six students regu-
larly respond in the classroom? For those students, we give high marks.
And for the others, we give some average marks.
When a few students scored good marks in FA tests, the teachers
remembered their names, and when they saw projects and assignments
submitted by these students, the teachers felt that they should be given
good marks, without too close a scrutiny of the actual content of the work
submitted. If teachers actually graded on the merit of the work submitted,
it is likely that these students would not receive high marks so consistently.
This attitude reveals the skewed understanding of FA activities on the part
of some teachers. They do not see these as worthy activities. Even in regard
to the CCE system, NJNV teachers preferred to keep a few students who
are good at FA tests at a higher level by awarding them more marks.

Student 1: For a question, when we ask how to answer it, the teachers say
write what is there in the book, write it in full. If we write on our own, based
on the knowledge we have, they do not give numbers.
Student 3: Answers to the SA tests [the student here is referring to the marking
scheme sent from the regional office for the SA test papers] come from [the
same place from] where the question paper also comes. Only if our answer
matches with what is given in the marking scheme, do they [the teachers]
give us full numbers. If I write something in addition to what was written as
an answer, or something related to the answer based on what we know, the
numbers are not given.
78 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

Student 4: Even if the method is different, they cut the numbers.

Student 2: In the economics textbook, the data given pertained to 2001. The
data given in the economics textbook had also changed over the years. If we
wrote the answer, and if the number is less, and if we go and ask [the teachers],
they say you did not provide todays data.
Student 3: Once there was a multiple-choice question in political science
the name of the national bird (rashtra pakshi), and all the three options given
for answering the question were wrong. When we went and told [the teachers],
they sent us back without saying anything. Teachers cut the numbers of stu-
dents even when all the options are wrong and even when the teacher himself
or herself does not know the answer.
Student 2: There was a question about how to control deforestation and the
book had six points as answers. I wrote three points and since those three points
were not in the marking scheme, I was not given numbers for that answer.
Student 1: There is no such thing as a perfect answer in the social sciences.
We can write anything. The social science teacher insists that we should
write a perfect answer. Also, when I answered a five-mark question, since
the mark was less, after looking at the answers in the copies, I showed the
teacher. He put 4 marks even if all the points were there. He says that cut-
ting half a mark for every question is compulsory.
Student 2: If we argue for more marks or do some jugaad [mischief], the
teachers tend to give less numbers for copies/homework. Some teachers say
that they wish to give high numbers and when it comes to examinations, they
give numbers that make us only just pass the examination.

The students I spoke to feel that grading is a good aspect of CCE.

Now marks have been replaced by grading. What do you think? Is this good
or bad?
Student 1: If someone scores 99, he gets the number 99, whereas in the case
of grading he gets A1 like the others. Those who score 61 and 69 are treated
in the same way in the present system. Some score 69 in one subject and
they score 61 in another subject, so the average is a B grade, and they will be
happy about it.
Grading is good, said all but one student in the group in a chorus.
Student 3: Someone scores 89 and someone gets 81. Dont you think for the
one who scored 89, unko burra lakta hai ya nahi [that they feel bad or not?]
Also, students who score 79 will feel bad about the grading because they are
not able to reach the A grade just by one number.
Srinivasan 79

Earlier, no marks were allotted to copies and teachers used to spend

only their free timeeither at home or in the school during their free
periodsto read these notebooks. However, the CCE system requires
teachers to tick mark every page and to sign the end of every chapter of
a copy. Copies fetch students four marks in a year, that is, one mark per
FA. Students copy from each others copy notebooks and then submit
these. In the staffroom, I did not see teachers paying any attention to
what was written in copies.12 Also, when the deadline to submit the
details of the marks drew near, most teachers spent their time on copy
checking during class hours, resulting in the waste of class hours that
should have been spent on actual teaching. Rajesh, the teacher in-charge
of the examination department, said:

The marks details of the summative assessment should be sent to the Regional
Office by 15th October 2012. There is going to be a DC-level meeting in New
Delhi at which the students performance in SA I is going to be discussed. In
order to get the summary results at the regional level, the marks details of
students are required for the regional offices. Due to this, teachers are busy
correcting answer sheets for four or five days just after the examination.

Theoretically, FA tests and activities are supposed to help teachers

understand their own teaching abilities and the learning difficulties faced
by students. However, the FA in the NJNV CCE compels teachers to
evaluate answer sheets, projects and all FA activities mechanically. The
FA activities and the meetings in Delhi have a direct impact on what
goes on in the NJNV classrooms and have led to the loss of invaluable
teaching hours.

Evaluation of Projects and Reports

Teachers spend little time not only on evaluating the answer scripts of
the FA and SA tests, but also on assessing the projects and assignments
submitted by students.

I sat with Ravi who was correcting the project work/assignments of Class IX
students. Within 2030 minutes, he tick-marked each page of the materials
and gave marks between 8 and 10 randomly. Since he also knows many stu-
dents by name, he gave 10 out of 10 to a few. He gave 10 out of 10 for what
he found to be innovatively written materials. When I went through the text
of those project reports/assignments, I found that most of the students had
80 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

copied textbook materials on a specific topic, but had written on coloured

papers using sketch pens.
Ravi is very particular about putting his signature on the first page and on
the last page. There were a few spelling mistakes, and Ravi said that he did
not have time to go through each project report. He said he had given these
projects/assignments to the students 15 days before, but they had submitted
them only today after he told the students that he would reduce the marks if any
project/assignment were submitted after today. Still, a considerable number
of students have not submitted their projects/assignments he said. I read out
the marks from the projects/assignments to him so that he could enter them in
the format meant for submission to the school. When I flipped through some
of the projects/assignments, I did not see any difference between the projects/
assignments in terms of quality. Most of them looked similar. Barring a few
students, Ravi gave marks randomly.

When I spoke with students about their projects and assignments,

they described their experiences during the last few years.

Student 1: When it comes to doing projects in CCE, teachers in Narayangarh

JNV think that their subject is more important and expect us not to bother
about the rest of the subjects. When the deadline for the other subjects comes
near, pressure increases in our hearts. Due to this, we are required to write dur-
ing night time also, even up to 2.00 a.m. We get into a depression when all the
teachers ask us to submit their projects and assignments on the same day.
Every day you get two hours of remedial periods (3.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.) in
the post-lunch time. What do you do during that period?
Student 2: We do all the writing work during that time. On some days, the
teachers take classes. Also, during the remedial time, the teachers insist that we
should study only those subjects for which the remedial period has been allot-
ted. For how long will you listen to teachers talking on the same subject?

Remedial hours are meant for helping students who have learning dif-
ficulties. The post-lunch time hours (3.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.) are treated
in this school as remedial hours, and all students are compelled to come
to class for all six working days of the week. Teachers reported that this
practice is followed for reasons of security; students are not supposed to
be left alone in the dormitories during the day time. Either the teachers
take the class if the syllabus has not been completed, or the teachers ask
the students to do their CCE works. In this way, they keep the students
busy and also ensure their security. During remedial hours, the students
do not have the freedom to do what they want and the students with
learning difficulties do not receive the assistance they require.
Srinivasan 81

There is also a belief among teachers that doing projects and assign-
ments only means making students write essays.

For getting 10 numbers, we are required to write 1015 pages. For instance,
in science, there are three divisionsphysics, chemistry and biology. We are
required to write 15 pages each for each formative assessment assignment.

Students want freedom to decide the kinds of assessment tools that can
be administered.

When a student is only interested in the FA tests and does not want to do
homework and says that he does not want to do [the tests and the homework],
our teachers do not allow him or her to do so. In my view, a student should
be given a choice about what kind of assessment he or she wishes to undergo.
There is no opportunity for [doing] this in CCE. For such students, they [the
teachers] inform the parents that their child is not doing anything other than
this. They dont see how the student has performed in the examinations.
Teachers perceive that this student did not do the homework, so let us ask the
parents to come [to the school], let us torture the student.
How are marks given for co-scholastic areas?
Student 1: When [the] results are prepared, [the] rest of the teachers do not
do anything. Only the class teacher prepares [the] results. She puts five, three,
five, three on the basis of what her heart (mann) says. Good students also get
three and bad students also get five.
Student 2: I have entered marks for some teachers [in the computer] for some
days up to 9.00 p.m. I know how they give numbers in these areas. When the
results are prepared, we students who enter marks know how it is done. Class
teachers come with a file and sit with us and prepare the soft copies of the
mark details.
If a student is seedha-sadha [obedient, straight, guileless] and does not go to
the teacher, he or she will get only one or two numbers. In co-scholastic areas,
whoever is humble to the class teacher [sic] will get good numbers.
Student 3: Some class teachers do not know even the names of all the students
nor can they recognize whether a student is in their class. How can they award
marks on co-scholastic areas?

The introduction of CCE has not changed teachers perceptions of tests

and activities. They still think that written tests are the appropriate tools
for measuring students learning levels. Students and teachers are supposed
to learn from each other in CCE. Hence, students learn from teachers in
the classroom, and teachers learn from students in the computer room
82 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

where the former help the latter with data-entry tasks related to entering
the marks details of FA and SA activities. The narratives given here reveal
that the requirement of following certain formats has come to dominate
schooling and that teachers fulfil the needs of CBSECCE in a mechanical
manner, without much reflection and analysis.

Conclusions
Providing a quality learning experience is the objective of any school,
and NJNV tries its level best to achieve this goal. The CCE framework is
expected to provide greater autonomy to schools and to make school-
based assessment a reality in India (NCERT, 2006c). The CCE that is
emphasised in NCF, 2005 rests on the basic tenets of holding flexible
examinations and reducing the academic burden on children. Indeed,
NCF, 2005 takes the Yashpal Committee Report (YCR), Learning with-
out Burden, as its starting point. A major concern expressed in the YCR
is the widespread practice of teaching only for achieving high marks in
examinations and the wash-back effect of examinations. However, the
implementation of CCE in the school, as I witnessed it, seems to be work-
ing against the very principles on which NCF, 2005 is based. If flexibility
and autonomy of both teachers and learners are the hallmarks of continu-
ous assessment, as recommended by NCF, 2005, then it is clear that the
continuous assessment practices currently being implemented do not show
any sign of the same. Observation of the practices on the ground actually
points to the opposite trend, and this conclusion is corroborated by both
teachers and students. They feel suffocated by the CBSECCE regime
under which the principal and the other authorities of NVS take decisions
that affect students and teachers. The reason for this state of affairs may be
attributed to the gaps in the understanding of CCE at the planning level in
the three important organisations involved in the business, namely, NCERT,
CBSE and NVS. The documents of NCERT and CBSE reveal a lack of
alignment and the absence of the very idea of continuous assessment.
Ironically, NCERT, although not a statutory body, is an academic authority
for the implementation of RTE, 2009, under which the assessment of learn-
ers is a major component.
Many of NCERTs NCF, 2005-based curricular materials used in the
school offer scope for conducting FA activities (projects, group work,
pair work and activities for reflection). Unfortunately, these activities are
not used for FA.
Srinivasan 83

A major impact of CCE in NJNV is the loss of invaluable teaching

hours. CCE requires teachers to spend a considerable amount of teach-
ing time on tasks such as typing question papers, recording marks, con-
verting marks into grades, filling the formats and entering the data in a
computer. They neither get time to explain conceptual issues, nor to
take remedial measures to help students. Teachers are as scared of CCE
as the students. The present formulation of CCE by the CBSE, and the
way in which it is being implemented by JNVs, needs a serious re-ex-
amination, as it not only goes against the basic right of children to joy-
ful and meaningful learning but also goes against the ethos that NCF,
2005 and RTE, 2009 advocate and that should be fostered in Indian
schools.

Acknowledgements
The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author and do
not reflect the views of the organisation with which he is associated.

Notes
1. According to chapter V of the RTE Act, 2009, the curriculum and the
evaluation procedures should: (i) conform with the values enshrined in the
Indian Constitution; (ii) encourage the all-round development of the child;
(iii) build up the childs knowledge potentiality and talent; (iv) develop the
physical and mental abilities of the child to the fullest extent; (v) encourage
learning through activities, discovery and exploration in a child-friendly and
child-centred manner; (vi) make the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety
and help the child to express views freely; and (vii) undertake continuous and
comprehensive evaluation of the childs understanding of knowledge and of
his or her ability to apply the same (emphasis added).
2. See George (2005), Sarangapani (2003a, 2003b) and Thapan (2006) for
details of some recent ethnographic accounts of schooling in India. See
also Emerson et al. (1995) for a basic understanding of the art of writing
ethnographic accounts.
3. The CBSE is one of the oldest examination boards in the country. It works
with nearly 15,000 government and private schools in India as well as in
many other countries through affiliation.
4. The NCF, 2005 is a guiding policy document for developing curricula and
for addressing systemic issues relating to schooling in India. It recommends
many measures for reforming the examination system in schools. Some of
them are: (i) make the Class X board examination optional; (ii) integrate
examinations into classroom life through transparency and internal
assessment; (iii) reduce the stress associated with pre-board examinations;
(iv) enable and encourage students to opt for different levels of attainment;
84 Contemporary Education Dialogue 12(1)

(v) shift towards school-based assessment and devise ways to make internal
assessment more credible; and (vi) shift the focus of examinations from
testing memory to testing higher-level competencies such as interpretation,
analysis and problem-solving skills. It also recommends that: (i) schools
have a flexible and implementable scheme of CCE, primarily for diagnosis,
remediation and enhanced learning; and (ii) the CCE needs to take into
account the social environment and the facilities available in schools. NCF,
2005 also notes that given the wide gap between rural and urban India, it may
be unreasonable and socially regressive to expect every student to achieve
the same level of competence in each subject in order to reach the next level
of the formal education system. See NCERT (2005).
5. The objectives of CCE, according to various manuals published by the
CBSE, are to: (i) help develop cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills;
(ii)lay emphasis on the thought process and to de-emphasise memorisation;
(iii) use evaluation for the improvement of students achievement and of
teachinglearning strategies on the basis of regular diagnosis, followed
by remedial instruction; (iv) use evaluation as a quality-control device
to maintain the desired standards of performance; (v) determine the social
utility, desirability or effectiveness of a programme, and to take appropriate
decisions about the learner, the process of learning and the learning
environment; and (vi) make the process of teaching and learning a learner-
centred activity (CBSE, 2010).
6. The name of the school and its location, as well as the names of teachers and
students, were changed to maintain anonymity.
7. See Khaparde et al. (2004) for a recent study on JNVs.
8. Copies are notebooks in which students write the questions given in
textbooks and dictated by teachers along with the answers. These answers
are dictated by teachers, or students write their own answers using textbooks
and reference books.
9. NVS has eight regional offices located in different parts of India. See www.
navodaya.nic.in for more details.
10. This terminology is used by students and parents in this region to denote the
marks scored in examinations.
11. NJNV students said that a few of their friends had played at the national level
(among the 650 schools of NVS) after winning competitions at the zonal
and regional levels. They did not get recognition for their achievements at
the time of interviews for jobs, including government jobs, as they are not
considered to be national-level players.
12. Teachers are required to submit lesson plans to the school administration.
I noticed many teachers writing their lesson plans in a mechanical way,
copying from the lesson plans of previous years. These are submitted
prior to the annual inspections. The writing of copybooks by students also
has become a mechanical exercise. The school principal does not see the
lesson plans seriously, nor do the teachers see the copies of the students
seriously.
Srinivasan 85

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