MES

Top CBSE officials visit MES, outline new exam policy
Web posted at: 2/18/2010 6:22:9
Source ::: The Peninsula
Doha: The Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in New Delhi, Vineet Joshi addressing the teaching faculty at the MES Indian School yesterday said ‘examinations go proxy’ to various attributes right from the fervour with which students prepare themselves for the exam, burning midnight oil in a frenzy manner to take up a three-hour exam

Joshi, along with two senior education officers from the board Dr Sadana Parashar and Dr Srijata Das are on a three-day visit to MES Indian School. Joshi outlined the shortcomings of the existing examination system and the objectives of the new policies.

“The present system of examinations, to a greater extent promotes and patronises only the rote memory among the students. Scoring good marks has become a proxy to whether teaching or studying was done well,” Joshi said.

Stressing the need for reforms in the examination system Joshi also said exams have become a management exercise of three hours and if the teachers know the technique of the trade, scoring would be easy. Moreover disparity has been becoming all the more glaring in terms of standard and performance of students especially between those who hail from the family of highly placed, second or third generation learners and those from the first generation learners.

Thus the examinations have become not so a ‘level playing field’ and so discriminating.”

Joshi also said that the present system aims at developing the child in a holistic approach, in the area of life skills comprising communication, creative thinking, stress management, emotional balance etc where every child’s positive attributes are recognised and developed.

Continuous and comprehensive Evaluation (CCF) system does not compromise on academic quality, instead, all measures are being adopted to make the assessment as unbiased and holistic as possible.

“In the wake of the recent reforms in the class IX and X Examination system introduced by the CBSE, the visit by the top officials from the Board will help the students, parents and teachers to get over their apprehensions and uncertainties on the issue and realise the real merits of the system,” said Principal of MES Indian school A P Sasidharan in his welcome address.

The guests were earlier accorded a warm welcome by the school officials and principals of Indian schools in Qatar accompanied by school scouts, guides and bands.

A welcome song by the school choir, composed by P J Beilbey, a solo song by Jemy Jacob, a classical dance by Sreelakshmi and classical fusion dance by MES student artistes and choreographed by Seema and Shiva Gouri, A Skit on life skills, directed by Rajendran, all made the function colourful.

Sanjeev Kohli, Minister from the Embassy of India, M R Qureshi, Second Secretary, M K Abdul Rahman, President of school governing body, K P Abdul Aziz, General Secretary, principals and vice principals of Indian schools in Qatar, the teaching faculty of MES and other schools took part in the formal function and workshop on “Exam Reforms and CCE.”

The sessions will resume today and continue till 1.30pm. An interactive session for parents in the current class 8 and 9 is scheduled tomorrow between 9 am and 11 am.