TN to implement Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation system in schools from next year

In a major shift in school education in Tamil Nadu children, will not memorise questions but will learn application-oriented ones besides testing the problem solving and thinking skills of children.

From the next academic year (2012-13), the ‘Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system' will be introduced in all schools in Tamil Nadu for classes I-VIII and for classes IX-X from 2013-14, according to a State Government order.

A trimester pattern will be introduced in all the schools from the next academic year with the CCE system an integral part of the system. The Central Board of Secondary Education has already introduced CCE for Classes I-X and is in the process of extending it to classes XI and XII. States such as Kerala and Karnataka too have implemented CCE.

The present testing of the student is based only on memory, and is one-dimensional. It does not test whether the student is able to interpret or apply knowledge gathered in any other frame of reference.

Students are not taught to analyse, to order, to organise, to reason, to find purpose and direction with the information that they receive without choice.

It does not take into account the child's learning style or have diversity in time-frame or testing mechanism that can accommodate and reflect the child's learning capacity.

The CCE scheme will be simple, flexible and implementable in any type of school — from the elite one to a school located in rural or tribal areas.

Some dimensions for CCE are already in place in Tamil Nadu at both Primary and Upper Primary levels in Government and Government-aided schools.

Currently, however, the framework of CCE for all schools is not in place.

The Evaluation Reforms in School Education Committee discussed with educationists and interacted with teachers about evolving and the implementing the CCE model for Classes I- X, and deliberated on the implications of extending it to Classes XI and XII.

Students will be evaluated in formative and summative assessments.

Formative assessment happens throughout each term and provides scope for diagnostic and remedial measures.

Summative assessment is conducted at the end of each term, which tests subject competencies.

After long deliberation, the system of evaluation followed now in colleges and institutes of higher learning is a semester pattern, with summative and project-based assessments built into the evaluation process.

This frame has replaced an earlier, content-laden non-semester pattern.

Thus, to enable students to transit smoothly from school to college, it is suggested to follow a similar pattern for Classes XI and XII, the order says.