CBSE to come up with a 'credible evaluation plan', says senior official

CBSE has cancelled the class 12th examination after many deliberations. However, students and parents across the country are wondering, how will CBSE evaluate the students. ETV Bharat spoke to Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examinations, CBSE regarding the issue. Dr Bharadwaj has assured that the board will create a plan that will be fair, credible, and acceptable to all.

CBSE has cancelled the class 12th examination after many deliberations. However, students and parents across the country are wondering, how will CBSE evaluate the students. ETV Bharat spoke to Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examinations, CBSE regarding the issue. Dr Bharadwaj has assured that the board will create a plan that will be fair, credible, and acceptable to all.

ETV Bharat: CBSE has recently cancelled the class 12th examinations across the country. However, the issue of evaluation is a key challenge for the CBSE. Let's discuss the issues with Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examinations, CBSE.

Several students and states have also demanded the cancellation of the exams. But evaluation of students is now the biggest challenge for CBSE. How will CBSE do the evaluation?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: The examination was cancelled keeping in mind students' health concerns. Evaluation of students is now a very important aspect. We are now working to create an evaluation plan for the students. We will take 10-12 days to study all the available data before making an evaluation scheme, which will be applicable for class 12 students, keeping in mind their real assessment. However, it is too early to talk about the assessment parameters. We will try to create a full-proof assessment plan.

ETV Bharat:Exams are cancelled but students are concerned about the assessment methods. It will take 10-12 days to decide the final assessment process. But the question is, what will be the pattern of assessment. Will it follow the assessment pattern of class 10th or will it be like the previous year's assessment?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: The previous year's assessment policy is not applicable this year. In the previous year, around 5 lakh students finished 5 exams. While some students completed 4 or 3 exams. So in the previous year, we could implement the assessment policy. However, this year since we have taken the decision to cancel the exams, we don't have a set assessment policy that can be used in this case. We have to do the assessment keeping in mind that students have not appeared for the exams. We have to keep in mind the several aspects of the student's learning. Our aim is to gather maximum information and data about students' learning. Based on that we can create a plan or a formula to assess the students. We will try to create an evaluation plan which is fair, reliable, acceptable and do an actual assessment.

ETV Bharat: Sir you said that evaluation must be fair. However, several students have expressed apprehension about the fairness of the assessment. These assessments will be done by the schools. So the students are worried about fairness and partiality. So how will you ensure the fairness of the assessment process?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: We have made a full-proof evaluation scheme for class 10 as well. We know very well where we will face issues and challenges. We have a good amount of experience in class 10 evaluation. We have received feedback from several people. To date out class 10 evaluation plan is full-proof. Our evaluation scheme ensures that schools don't have the chance to take any illegal advantages.

We are taking the help of people outside the organisation. We have appointed a team of 5 teachers to check on the subject knowledge level of students. We are also maintaining a rational document that is being updated with the day-to-day progress report. I have full faith in our school system. Our schools that give value-based education will do a proper evaluation without any influence. We have to keep full faith in our school system. In case a student is not satisfied with the school evaluation, then they can appear for an exam conducted by the CBSE, based on which evaluation can be done and the result can be released.

Students ad parents must keep faith in the schools and CBSE for the evaluation scheme. It's a challenge to create an evaluation plan for a huge population. It's huge project work. But I can assure you that our schools won't do any wrong deeds or take undue advantages during the evaluation process. Our schools are known for values.

ETV Bharat: You said that students and parents must keep faith in the schools. There should be transparency in the whole process. What are the steps required to ensure there are no doubts about the whole process?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: We will create a policy that will be transparent and will be put on the open platform. we will upload it on our website. People can see and know the policy. All the schools will work according to the policy. We will also keep a record of the process, which will be available to us. So I don't think any person can do any wrongdoing in the process. Since the exam has been cancelled, we need some time to create a policy. We have to study the data, form a policy, unveiling a plan that will be transparent. I will again urge the people and society to have faith in us. Trust the board, trust the schools, and we will ensure transparency at all levels. Schools and the board will be responsible for the policy.

ETV Bharat: Once again the question arises on how the evaluation will be done. Will be like the previous year's pre-board based evaluation of class 10,11 and 12? Or any other methods for evaluation will be used?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: It's too early to say about the methods of evaluation. As of now, we are trying to gather as much information about the student's learning so that we can predict the knowledge in a better way in order to have the prediction as accurate as it can be. We would like to go for such a plan.

ETV Bharat: In the case of students missing their pre-boards due to different reasons or if they failed to attend other school examinations or practicals. What will happen in such a scenario? Students have genuine fear regarding this.

DrSanyam Bhardwaj: We will try to take account of all such problems and find a solution in our plans. We will ensure that all issues like online, offline, pre-board exams, class tests, school exams, etc be taken into account while creating the plan. We will keep every situation in mind and will provide solutions. I now urge the students to think about their future. Leave these concerns to us. We will take care of these concerns. We are a specialist agency. We have long experience, a large volume of data, knowledge of the system, assessment process. We are a specialist agency. We will work in the interest of our students. I again urge the students to think about their future. Don't worry about the exam evaluation. We will ensure a correct and fair assessment.

ETV Bharat: I believe that this a good thing that you said about students focusing on their future instead of assessment. But there are concerns among the students who are waiting for their results and are hoping to apply in foreign countries or reputed universities like JNU and Delhi University. These universities and colleges need the results for the admission process and different entrance exams like IIT, JEE, NEET, etc. So the question is how soon can you release the results?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: Students don't need to panic or fear in any situation. CBSE and UGC are working together. In the previous year also we have worked in coordination. The government is committed, the educational bodies are also committed to ensuring a hassle-free admission process.

About the entrance exams, it will be conducted when there will be a conducive environment in the country. So, whenever these exams will happen, students can appear and get admission based on their exam results.

About the foreign universities. I would like to inform you that we have surveyed the world starting from the USA to New Zealand, to see how many students are going to which countries. What are their requirements and deadlines. We will ensure that our students, going to foreign universities will get full support. We can help our students by giving them their results on priority, we can also write to foreign universities on behalf of our students, we can issue certificates, mark sheets, etc. We have a list of around 190 universities. We have the date of admission deadlines, dates for commencement of online or off-line classes when they will need CBSE results; we have kept all these scenarios in mind and we will find a solution to these issues in our policy.

ETV Bharat: Sir as you said that CBSE are in touch with different foreign and Indian universities, But another question has been raised by the students of the science stream. Some schools are still conducting practical exams. Amid such a situation, students are being forced to come to school. what is your opinion on this?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: Regarding the practicals, my opinion is very clear. There is no need to conduct practical exams. several states have imposed lockdowns. Students' health should be the priority. We will soon release more information on the issue. We can also extend the deadlines for practical exams. but right now I want to request the schools not to compel the students to appear for practicals, especially if the schools are not open in states where lockdowns are imposed. They can wait for our policy and conduct the exams as per the policy.

ETV Bharat:CBSE is known for creating records. You have always maintained and created records. So even in this epidemic, will CBSE make a record while releasing the results? Last year, you have released the results within 28 days, creating a record in the process.

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: We never believe in creating records. We believe in quality work. In the last year, we received cooperation from all the schools and teachers. Our schools are really good. Our teachers are good. They are very good at following directions and advisory orders. Whenever will need help, our schools and teachers will join us and will help us to finish our work. We are focused on quality work, not on records.

ETV Bharat: This is my last question. Will we see the class 10th results first or you will release the class 12th results first?

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: We have already started the work for class 10th. Work on class 12th will soon start. We will try to finish the class 10 results first. We will declare the result of class 10 once it's ready. Challenge is to declare the class 12th results. We will try to declare them at the earliest, keeping in mind all the challenges and issues. We will try to ensure that as soon as the results of any school are available, we announce them. This time we won't be compiling all the data and results. Instead, we will keep releasing class 12 and 10 results as they are ready.

ETV Bharat: That means there is no way the whole country's result can be declared this year at one go. You will announce results based on regions, cities, district or even schools.

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj: Absolutely, it can be done this way.

ETV Bharat: Thank you sir for joining ETV Bharat sir. Today we interviewed Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller of Examinations, CBSE. He has assured the students that the assessment will be fair, credible and transparent and the board will release the results keeping in mind the issues faced by the students.