Educational institutions are making efforts to assure their students and their parents that the evaluations conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) for Classes III, V, and VIII will not influence the overall academic performance or the advancement of students.
The kids should not be burdened with additional preparation for these online tests, the schools said.
The evaluations are part of a new initiative titled Project SHINE aimed at promoting holistic development among students.
The online tests will be held in two phases — from October 6 to 17 and from November 10 to 21.
“These tests are designed to assess the students’ prior subject knowledge,” Future Foundation School said in a missive to parents.
“The objectives of the CISCE key assessment tests are to serve as diagnostic tools to identify learning gaps, assess students’ understanding of core concepts, promote competency-based education, and facilitate remedial action for students,” the school said.
“Parents should see these assessments as an ongoing thing and need to understand that they cannot separately prepare students for these,” said Ranjan Mitter, principal, Future Foundation School.
“The curriculum for the evaluation is based on what is being taught in school, and parents and students will be told that the assessments will have no consequence on their overall performance,” said Seema Sapru, principal, The Heritage School.
Sri Sri Academy would send out a note to parents to reassure them that the evaluation will not impact the child’s promotion to the next level.
“It will be a two-way evaluation that would assess both the child’s level and the school’s pedagogy,” said Gargi Banerjee, principal, Sri Sri Academy.
Several schools are holding internal meetings to decide on the dates and the dates they would choose for the tests.
Schools are working out their logistics to find out which dates would serve them best.
“We have 180-odd students in each class and so would need approximately two
days to complete each level,” Banerjee of Sri Sri Academy said.
Future Foundation has decided to conduct the assessment over two days for each of the three levels.
Although the assessment targets students in Classes III, V, and VIII, this year, students in Classes III, VI and IX will take the tests as they are being held mid-session.
Future Foundation has decided to hold the tests for all three classes in November.
“Teachers are speaking to students to brush up on what they have learnt so far,”
said Suchandra Laha, headmistress, Future Foundation.