Visakhapatnam: The initial glitches marred the objectives of the recently concluded Summative Assessment-I (SA), which were introduced as part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) from this academic year for Class VI to X. The SA system, which was a paradigm shift from the earlier District Common Examination Board, brought in a common question paper for all schools in the state irrespective of managements. But the challenges in the process of implementation of SA-I took the sheen off this relatively new pattern.
Some questions were out of the prescribed syllabus. Even after concluding the exams and correcting the question papers, the teachers were caught off guard with five per cent external evaluation (five per cent papers are re-evaluated by the mandal-level valuation team). Andhra Pradesh Private Schools Association chairman K.S.N. Murthy said that the distribution of examination papers was not as per the indent in some districts.
“While the examination papers of all subjects were given at a time in some districts, the school managements had to rush to the respective centres to collect the question paper on each day. Shortage of question papers had only led us to photocopy centres, which may give scope for leakages. The out-of-syllabus questions and two exams per day had also sent the students into a tizzy. The ‘principles of evaluation’ provided by the officials had also become another problem as some questions can be answered in a general sense. Given the criteria involved, the paper valuation was also a time-consuming procedure,” Mr Murthy added.
SCST Upadhyaya Sangam AP president, Samala Simhachalam commented that re-evaluation of five per cent papers is nothing but doubting the capabilities of the teachers. “We request the government to scrap the re-evaluation procedure at mandal level and address the other issues involved in the examination procedure,” Mr Simhachalam said. Mr Murthy said that instead of implementing common examination for all classes from VI to X, the government can implement it for any of the two classes, either VII and X or VIII and X.
