A critical analysis on Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is a process of assessment, mandated by the Right to Education Act (RTE), of India in 2009. It is a holistic assessment system aiming to develop skills of students in all areas in order to make children stress-free. The system is designed to assess students from various perspectives, intending eventually to eliminate rote-learning and cramming. The need of such an assesment was also felt by the Kothari Commission and by the National Policy on Education and National Curriculum Frame Work Team.

CCE includes all relevant aspects of personality development of a student. Education is meant to bring the best out of a learner. As it is a continuous process therefore a continuous evaluation system is adopted to check the effectiveness of learning process. This evaluation system includes both the scholastic and co-scholastic aspect of a learner’s growth. It reduces the undue stress of competitiveness among students, parents and the educational institutions.

But there are many drawbacks too in the system as of now. CCE is not fully understood and appreciated by a lot of teachers and they oppose the system. It is possibly for the lack of proper orientation of the teachers and lack of proper monitoring. Educating, training and evaluating the teachers are essential conditions for the success of the system. Also, there is a tendency among students to make presentation of papers and preparation of projects based on inputs down-loaded from internet or copied from friends.

Indian schooling also runs with an improper student-teacher ratio. There is a huge shortage of teachers. Average student teacher ratio in India is 40:1 which is much higher than RTE stipulation. The phenomenon of engaging the teachers on non-educational work “on duty” by Govt is alarming.

With so many drawbacks, can CCE succeed? Another impediment as actually seen in schools is the subjective assessment by teachers rather than objective assessment. Such favours and discrimination of students will defeat the very purpose of the scheme.Without commitment from teachers, without proper teacher training and evaluation, with no stipulation of Code of Conduct for students, and teachers behaving as trade union members and as powerful political force at the time of elections, this scheme may face a great challenge to survive.

To overcome all the obstacles, we have to be more sincere and more updated on every aspect of CCE. The following table will help a lot in this regard.

The CCE Pattern of Class – IX for Madhyamik (Classes IX & X) level has been introduced in 2015 in West Bengal with a little redesign. In this new pattern there are two premises of evaluation: Internal Formative Evaluation & Summative Evaluation.

Subject	Subject-Wise Full Marks (1st Term)		Subject-Wise Full Marks (2nd Term)		Subject-Wise Full Marks (3rd Term)
	Summative	Internal Formative	Summative	Internal Formative	Summative	Internal Formative
First Language	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
Second Language	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
Mathematics	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
Physical Science & Environment	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
Life Science & Environment	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
History & Environment	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
Geography & Environment	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	40 (Time: 1 hr. 30 mins)	10	90 (Time: 3 hr. 15 mins)	10
	280	70	280	70	630	70
	350		350		700

Summative Evaluation: Full Marks & Time Scheme

In case of Summative Evaluation, the new question pattern consisting of Multiple-Choice questions, very short-answer type questions, short questions, explanatory questions, essay type questions, etc. are to be followed. The question pattern of 90 marks that has been designed for each subject is to be followed.

1st Term		2nd Term		3rd Term
Full Marks	280	Full Marks	280	Full Marks	630
Specified period in Academic Calendar	April 1 to April 10	Specified period in Academic Calendar	August 1 to August 10	Specified period in Academic Calendar	December 1 to December 15

Formative Evaluation: Full Marks & Time Scheme

1st Term		2nd Term		3rd Term
Full Marks	70	Full Marks	70	Full Marks	70
Specified period in Academic Calendar	January to April	Specified period in Academic Calendar	May to August	Specified period in Academic Calendar	September to December

In case of Internal Formative Evaluation, the following six modalities are to be followed:

1. Survey Report
2. Nature Study
3. Case Study
4. Creative Writing
5. Model Making
6. Open Book Evaluation

Out of these six options noted above, any three are to be chosen in an academic year vis-a-vis Internal Formative Evaluation in each of the seven subjects. Therefore, each term will have one modality in relation to a particular subject. Subject teacher(s) are expected to correlate the modalities of Internal Formative Evaluation with the learning competencies of the concerned subjects. It may be noted that for a particular class, one modality is to be applied for one term. There should not be any repetition of a particular modality for a particular class in an academic year. The subject teacher(s) are expected to preserve the products of Internal Formative Evaluation. In an academic calendar there will be three Summative Evaluations. For the Second Summative Evaluation the competencies of the first Summative Evaluation, and for the Third Summative Evaluation, the competencies of the first and second Summative Evaluation must be reflected. The subject teacher(s) must arrange for the Internal Formative Evaluation in their respective subjects. The subject teacher(s) shall submit the marks obtained by students in each Internal Formative Evaluation to the respective class teachers.