Teachers not enthused at classroom-based assessment system

NELLORE: The newly introduced classroom-based assessment system for students of Class 1 to VIII has not found favour with the teachers.

Teachers say the OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets-based answering system's question paper for primary classes is not in order as these students can hardly understand the concept, and more so in village schools.

There were instructions to the primary teachers to assist the students of Class I to III in using the OMR sheet. “It is a herculean task to guide each and every student in the class,” teachers say.

They argue that it is beyond the capacity of these students to understand the question and mark the answers in the OMR sheet. Instead, the system can be introduced from Class VI, they propose.

“The above-average students answer some questions orally but they too are making mistakes while selecting the right answer among the four choices (ABCD) in the OMR sheet,” a teacher said.

Teachers are forced to mark the OMR sheets for the majority of the students, he said.

The government intention behind introducing the CBA is to improve creativity among students. But the approach should be relevant to the grasping capacity of the average student, a teacher said.

When contacted, Director of AP SCERT (AP state council of educational research & training) Dr B Pratap Reddy defended the OMR sheet system. “This is already in vogue for lower classes at Navodaya Schools as well as several private schools,” he said.

Maintaining that 90 per cent of the brain development takes place for children by age 9, he said the intention is to augment creative thinking among children.

He said, “We would analyse the OMR sheets answered by students to understand the thinking pattern of the children and shall make modifications in teaching methods accordingly, to improve their skills.”

“There may be some starting troubles but the new examination system is certain to improve knowledge and creativity among children. We would extend necessary support to the teachers,” he added.

Welcoming the initiative, the Nellore district unit chief of AP Upadhya Sangam KK Rajagopal said examinations on OMR-based answering systems should have been introduced only after creating awareness among the students.

“The question paper should have more questions relevant to the textbooks,” he said while referring to the difficulty faced by students to answer general questions.

Notably, the AP government entered into an Mou with an agency named Educational Initiatives (EI) for support in the Assessment area as part of Andhra’s Learning Transformation Programme (SALT), which is being implemented to strengthen school education in all aspects.

To identify the learning gaps in students, EI has proposed to conduct three classroom-based assessments (CBA) this academic year for Classes 1 to 8 in the subjects of First Language Telugu, Second Language Hindi, Third Language English, Environmental Science, Mathematics, General Science (which consists of a single paper for physical science and biological science), and Social Studies (with bilingual question papers).