Madhyamik schools are about to embrace an examination model introduced, and later rejected, by ICSE and CBSE schools several years ago.

The school education department on Tuesday decided to start surprise class tests at the primary, secondary and Higher Secondary levels from the 2013 academic year.

The move is aimed at overhauling an archaic examination system and will apply to all schools, including private ones, affiliated to the state board.

Bikram Sen, principal secretary, school education, said unit tests in the present evaluation system would make way for surprise assessment — both written and oral.

“The surprise tests will more effectively assess how well students have grasped the lessons,” Sen said. It is yet to be decided if half-yearly and annual exams will be continued.

Surprise tests were first introduced in English-medium schools affiliated to the ICSE board and the CBSE in the mid-90s to improve attendance and critically assess students. Mid-term and end-term exams were also conducted then.

The model was scrapped a few years ago, making way for Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), a principal of a city school said.

Rita Chatterjee, the principal of Apeejay schools, welcomed the new model but sounded caution. “The benefit (of surprise tests) is that they allow assessment of a child’s everyday learning. But I would like to use the word ‘check’, not test, because tests instil fear in the child’s mind. The flip side is that they may create fear of exams in some students.”

Principal secretary Sen said surprise tests and the plan to introduce other innovative assessment tools were based on the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of 2005 and 2009. The human resource development ministry had drawn up the framework to overhaul the examination system in schools across the country.

“We think the existing evaluation system, which will continue this year, encourages students to resort to cramming to score high. This does not enhance their aptitude, something the NCF strongly advocates,” Sen said. He said the government would also overhaul the syllabus to suit the new model. “Teachers, too, would have to be trained.”

The new system will be finalised in consultation with the West Bengal Syllabus Restructure Committee.