The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) plans to hold a pilot project for assessments in Class III, V and VIII by the end of the current academic session, the council chief executive and secretary said.
The assessments will test the proficiency of students in these classes and be a “diagnostic tool”.
“The council is preparing to conduct a pilot (for assessments in Classes III, V and VIII) by the end of this academic year in 2024-25. We need to test the efficiency of the system before introducing it,” Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary of the CISCE, told Metro over the phone last week.
“The efficacy of these assessments will only be to see the proficiency of a child.”
When the council chief was in Calcutta in July, he announced the council’s plan of introducing assessments in Classes III, V and VIII, which will give “an insight into the learning aptitude and skill set of the learner” and not be an exam that threatens a child with “pass-fail”.
The assessments will be computer-based and will be conducted in school.
He said the pilot will be conducted in a sample number of schools, selected randomly.
“The council will be randomly selecting schools from rural, urban, semi-urban and metro cities so that there is a perfect representation of schools across the country.”
Not all schools in the country have the same level of infrastructure.
The pilot will be important to test the preparedness of schools and pre-empt the challenges, if any, Emmanuel said.
“When you roll out something on a massive scale, all preparations need to be tested. These assessments will be conducted digitally so, we need to see how well the schools are prepared, what the challenges one can encounter are, what if the internet goes off in between an assessment and so on.”
He said the pilot will help the council get feedback from students and teachers.
In July, while addressing principals of Bengal and the Northeast at a programme held in a school, Emmanuel had said that schools are not to prepare children separately for the assessment.
He had said that these are called diagnostic assessments, to diagnose the health of the school system and the health of the classroom transaction that is happening in a section, class or school.
Students will get to know their results but no marks will be awarded, he had said. The results will indicate whether a student has attained the required competency.