With “No Fail Policy” in Punjab Board Exams for 5th & 8th Classes –taking test for gradation will be a futile exercise
Rs.100 crore expenditure could convert 200 Punjab Government Schools to Adarsh Schools
With “No Fail Policy” in Punjab Board Exams for 5th& 8th Classes –taking test for gradation will be a futile exercise
With the provision of ‘No Fail Policy’ for 5th and 8thclass students in government high schools, under the Right to Education Act, it will be a futile exercise to spend Rs.100 crores on taking tests and gradation and valuation could be by the local teachers itself, says education experts.’
No doubt Education Minister, Punjab Dr.Daljit Singh Cheema is serious about the issues relating to education but with ‘no fail policy’ according to Right to Education Act, has opposed number of times besides having support of 3-4 states in this regard. However, no reforms could be brought on this very important and crucial issue.
The other alternative taken up was that the Punjab School Education Board, will take the test of 10 lakh students in the state at its own level and categorize them in A,B,C and D Grades and there will no fail student.
According to this logic too, the students will be prepared for the board examinations and teachers too have to train themselves for this job.
The education experts are of the view that it will be in-affective exercise of the education department. In case the students have to be promoted to 6th and 9th class then instead of wasting Rs.100 crore, the 200 schools in the state could be converted into Adarsh Schools.
Added here, this practice was has already been tried by DGSE and it was a flop show just after one year. Now the exams for gradation are to be conducted at SCERT level – for 5th class at block level and for 8th class at cluster level. For this exercise, the whole staff will be busy during the month of February affecting the studies of 9th to 12thclasses of lacs of students in the state.
The education experts and school heads are of the view that the valuation and gradation through exams will be more effective at the school level. At the same time, when the new policy cannot stop the upgradation of even weak students to next class, it is not understood as to what the government wants to prove?
To apprise about the ground realities, when the issue was discussed with certain school heads and education experts, they said that the education policy of the Punjab Education Department is making mere practical and also speaks of vested interests and 5th and 8thclass students on the rolls of Board but no exams, looks to be a stage show.
Frankly speaking, the job of SCERT is to target the teachers through its new researches but the State Council of Education Research and Training is poor in new reforms and researches and looks to be department entangled in ‘stop-gap-arrangement’ policies.
Punjab School Education Department should make changes in the existing system to avoid unnecessary burden on government exchequer so that intellectual force available with the government concentrate exclusively on the students of the students.