Read, don’t play

New Delhi, Nov. 20: Reading storybooks by the likes of Enid Blyton or Agatha Christie may now earn children marks at school.

Students from Class V onwards could soon be rewarded on their reading habits under a Central Board of Secondary Education proposal to use a new evaluation system to encourage children to read storybooks.

India’s largest school board has asked affiliated institutions to include reading habits among parameters to be used in the comprehensive and continuous evaluation (CCE) of students in English, and has even proposed a reading list.

The CCE, already in place till Class VIII and extended now till Class X, is aimed at reducing a student’s dependence on his performance in term-ending examinations to secure good marks.

Under this evaluation system, a student’s term scores are based on his performance in a series of tests and assignments, measured in two formative assessments, and one semester-ending test.

The CBSE, in its letter to affiliated schools, has proposed that reading habits be tested in one of the formative assessments using discussions, quizzes, dramatised depictions and even an interaction with the author, if possible.

The board has cautioned against asking students to write reports on the books they read — a form of assessment the CBSE feels may bore students.

Students can, however, be asked to critically review a book or its characters, the board has said.

The books should not be taught in class. Instead, a teacher can ask the students of a class to read any book they like by a particular (and common) author or genre.

The books recommended by the CBSE range from old classics to modern-day works of fiction.

For Classes V and VI, the board has recommended Enid Blyton’s Noddy and Famous Five series, tales from the Panchatantra and Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Cholocate Factory among other books.

Books by Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne, which have retained their popularity for over a century, are listed among the suggested reading for students of Classes VII and VIII.

Class VII and VIII students have also been recommended modern-day stories by James Herriot, and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Mystery masters Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie share the proposed list for Classes IX and X with Louisa M. Alcott, Ruskin Bond, Jack London, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Oscar Wilde, Herman Melville and P.G. Wodehouse.

Harper Lee, Gilbert Chesterton, George Orwell, George Elliot, Jane Austin, Gerald Durrell, Jerome K. Jerome, Charles Dickens, Anne Frank’s Diary and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest have been recommended for Classes XI and XII.

In addition, the board has prescribed Satyajit Ray, Ismat Chughtai, Vikas Swarup, R.K. Narayan, Sudha Murthy, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Guy de Maupassant and . Henry for teachers to suggest at their discretion.