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Picnic to Kelva beach by UT staff

 Universal Tutorials had organized one day picnic to Kelva beach to its staff and their families, Thane Dist. Maharashtra. Nearly 50 staff and their families participated in the program and had a memorable trip to Kelva beach. Mr.M.L.Sinhal, president, UT and Mr.Anubhav Sinhal, MD, UT had actively involved in all the activities of the picnic and making the trip an enjoyable one. Mr.M.L.Sinhal had ensured in providing a delicious lunch prepared under his supervision to all. Mr.Anubhav Sinhal was leading all the fun and frolic activities. All the participants are of the same view that the trip was a memorable one and helped them to rejuvenate for future activities of UT.

 All the staff thanks UT for arranging the fun filled trip.

Activities of the trip can be viewed here.

An article on CCE system of CBSE X

CBSE has brought out Examination reforms to strengthen the educational system and introduced Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation (CCE) system for std. IX and X.  This is a school based evaluation system rather than the currently followed external examination. The questions arises in each student/ parent’s mind is what is the necessarily for the change in the system and what is the drawback of previous system? Universal Tutorials has brought out this article for the benefit of parents and students. 

In the earlier pattern of CBSE X, students’ learning skill was evaluated by the CBSE board examination conducted at the end of Std..X.

Draw backs of the old system:

i)                    One single examination evaluates a student’s learning skill of an entire year.

ii)                   The examination answer papers were corrected by different examiners and there exists the possibility of examiner’s bias in the evaluation.

iii)                  In the old system, the students did not have ample time to carry out experimental learning in class room.

iv)                  Other skills are not evaluated.

The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system introduced is aimed at evaluating performance on regular basis throughout the year on scholastic, co–scholastic areas. The evaluation is on three parts,

Part 1 will consist of evaluation of academic performance of the learner in class IX & X. Two types of evaluation process are to be followed,

I. Formative assessment:                                                                               

i)                    This is used continuously by the teacher to monitor the student’s progress in a supportive environment.

ii)                   Ii)In formative assessment more emphasize should be given to other methods instead of written examination. These include quizzes, interviews, conversations, visual testing, oral testing, projects, practical and assignments.  Schools are also advised to conduct more than 2 such assessments in a term and take the best of two out of them. Thus a more interactive mode of learning process and evaluation is advised.

II. Summative assessment:

i)                    This assessment is in the form of written test conducted by the schools themselves at the end of each term.

ii)                     In order to ensure standardization and uniformity, the board will provide question bank, solutions and marking scheme to schools. There will also random verification of the assessment procedures followed by the schools by the board officials or nominees.

Details of number of terms per year, type and no. of assessments to be done and their weight age are as shown,

It can be seen that there will be 2 terms in an academic year. Each term will have 2 formative and 1 summative assessments for evaluation of scholastic areas.

The assessment marks will not be given but a nine grades will be given. The details of the same and its merits and demerits are discussed in “Will grade system affect me?” You may go through the same for a detailed discussion and information.

A comprehensive certificate for Std. IX & X together will be issued by the board at thee end of Std. X.

Part II will assess co–scholastic areas that include Life–skills, attitudes and values. A five point grading scale for life–skills and three point grading foe attitudes and values will be followed.

Part III consists of co–scholastic activities that include participation in library, scientific, aesthetic, club activities and health & Physical Education. A three point grading will be followed for all these areas for assessing the students.

Advantages:

i)                    The learning is assessed by 12 assessments instead of 1 examination as in the old system. This will give a true assessment of the student and doing one assessment will not affect overall performance of the student.

ii)                   CCE addresses holistic assessment of a learner, wherein co–scholastic areas and co–curricular activities are also taken into account in the evaluation process, if implemented properly.

An article on grading system of CBSE X

CBSE board has introduced grading system for standard IX and X instead of current practice of awarding marks. This will come into effect for std. IX from October 2009 onwards and for std. X in March 2011 and thereafter.

The question arises in every student’s mind is “Is the Grade system is really good? Or will it affect me? “. In this article we discuss the pros and consequences of the grading system to dispel any misgivings about the system.

Present system: In the existing system, students are given exact marks scored in different subjects in  X CBSE board examination. Students scored more than 33% in all subjects are marked pass and can seek admission to Std XI. Students scoring less that 33% in any subjects have to reappear for exam in these subjects to pass and seek further admission.

In the new grading system marks are not awarded, but a nine point scale grading system. Marks 100 to 0 will be put into nine grades A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D, E1 and E2. For example A1 represents marks in the range 91 to 100, E2 marks below 20. For more details of other grades refer Grading of CBSE you may get the details or CBSE circular from “Down load center” in www. Universaltutorials.com. The word failed would be abolished once system is successfully implemented. Students obtaining D or better grade will be issued qualifying certificate and can seek admission for Std. XI. Others can improve the grade on subjects secured E1 or E2 by appearing again ( 5 attempts are permitted) and get the qualifying certificate.

UT’s view:

Advantage:

Students with certain ranges of marks are grouped together. Due to this, variations in the evaluation by different examiners are not going to affect the students. .

Disadvantages

i) Huge pool of students will be grouped together. For example. there were 348 students last year in Navi Mummbai at Universal Tutorials itself scoring more than 90%. A scenario will emerge wherein all students scoring say above 91% in all subjects will have the same cumulative grading as shown in the example, 

This will put into a problem of how will you rank them? How the admission process for standard XI will be based on? To address the problem, Percentile has been introduced by the board. Percentile of a student indicates the position/ rank of the student in %. The top ranked student will get a percentile of 100. This is calculated by the formula, No of students below the student X 100 / (Total no of students –1).

ii) The grading system may actually lead to more stress and disincentive to performance.

 iii) In addition to CBSE, SSC by state boards and ICSE are also conducting exams for std X and they continue to follow the marks system and percentage of mark in each subject. Marks percentage and percentile are not comparable. This leads to an open ended situation particularly for std XI admission process seeking admission from CBSE to other boards and has to be seen how will be tackled.

Realistic concerns:

i) In the new grading system a student continuing studies in the same school o f CBSE board will not be affected. But for a student who wishes to shift to another school or board, the procedure of standardization of percentile of CBSE board versus Marks awarded by other boards   needs to be evolved. There calls for uniformity in the systems of different boards.

ii) Grading system is part of CCE system being introduced. CCE is an ideal system and is suitable in a scenario where the choice of subjects for further studies does not depends on the grades obtained but  solely depends on the aptitude of the student. In such situation only, stress on the students due to examination will seize to exist. In our country, infrastructures for higher studies are limited. Number of students seeking the admissions for a particular course is far more than the availability of seats to that course. This will lead to a situation that there will competitions for getting higher percentile which will form the basis for admissions to further studies. This amounts to old stuff in a new pack.

iv) The CCE system requires more interaction between students and teachers. This will be possible only with lesser student to teacher ratio. With the ratio of as high as 50 in most of the schools, the assessment in Co–Scholastic skills will be difficult.

iii) It may be recalled that grading is not a new system. It was in use with some boards/ Universities for example Madras university was following for std XI ( Pre–university) and Bachelor degrees in sixties and subsequently discontinued in favor of marks system. Unless a major reform in our admission process is brought, changing to grading system will not help in reducing the students’ stress.

Today in an accident on Navi Mumbai's Palm Beach road, two school buses collided with each other. These buses belonged to DPS, Nerul and Seven Day Adventist School, Sanpada. I am personally very saddened as being an eye witness to this accident in which abot 8 small children less than 12 years of age got hurt. Thanks to the almighty they are all safe and are being treated at the MGM hospital. But I could not help sharing this with you all in my blog.

My elder son Yash studies in DPS school and would normally have taken this bus to school (Bus Route No. 22 of DPS). This accident happened today in front of my eyes. Today luckily my son did not take the bus and I was myself driving him to the school. Normally he would have been in that bus. We were behind the bus when it collided with another school bus from Seven Day Adventist school coming perpendicular from Nerul.

It was scary, very scary. But as I see it this accident was waiting to happen. All school buses (majority) in Navi Mumbai are owned by one corporater Mr. Santosh Shetty. These buses are in a pathetic condition and you do not need an expert to certify the same, just looking at them any layman can tell you the pathetic state of the buses. After the CKT school bus episode, there was lot of talk of regulating the school buses, but hardly anything translated into action on ground. All school buses owned by Mr. Santosh continued as it is. We the parents are like a helpless lot knowing that the kids can any point land in an accident but because of complete apathy from the authorities and the greed of Mr. Santosh Shetty, seeing our own children die in front of our eyes, helpless. I appeal to all parents of Navi Mumbai, School Principals, the Navi Mumbai authorities to please take urgent steps. Thanks

An article on the choice of students of CBSE X to appear for Board exam 2011 or not

CBSE has brought out Examination reforms to strengthen the educational system and introduced Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation (CCE) system for std. IX and X.  This is a school based evaluation system rather than the currently followed external examination. CCE addresses holistic assessment of a learner, wherein co–scholastic areas and co–curricular activities are also taken into account in the evaluation process. Therefore the CCE scheme brings about a paradigm shift from examination to effective pedagogy. From mere reproduction of what they have learnt in class, the new system will help to identify the students’ inner talents. The system is student friendly and universally accepted mode of rating a student’s capabilities. While introducing the new system, board has also retained board’s external examination which is optional. There are nearly eight lakhs students to be given the option of not writing the board exams of class X from the year 2011. Hence the question in every student/ parent’s mind is “Whether to opt for Board exams 2011 or not?”

Universal tutorials has brought out this article on the above question to help the students/ parents in arriving a correct decision.

Facts:

There are two types of schools under CBSE,

i)                    Secondary schools that have classes only up to std X.

ii)                   Senior secondary schools that have classes up to XII.

In case of Secondary school, there is only one option of appearing for board examination as they have to move out for standard XI. In case of Senior secondary school students, there exist three options a) CCE b) External examination c) CCE and external examination for self assessment purpose. The option of CCE only is for those students want to continue in CBSE board likely in the same school.

Overview:

Universal Tutorials feels that irrespective of type of school, students should go for the board examination for obvious reasons of

i)                    Keep your options open. This will help them to seek admission to other schools and other boards.

ii)                   The system is new experiment in the right direction. In the initial stages of implementation, there can be some surprises till the system stabilizes. . In such eventualities external examination is alternative to fall back.

iii)                  In case of a student doesn’t do well in CCE, he can make it up for it during the board exam.

iv)                  Maximum number of students whom Universal Tutorials has interacted is opting for board exam. In 2011.

 Universal Tutorials acknowledges that the new system is an ideal system .The system if implemented in the right perspective will boost the students’ morality thereby enriching their personality and hence it has to be welcomed. The system needs be followed for XI and XII also. The overview given above is intended for initial stages of introduction.

Welcome to the blog of Universal Tutorials. Well look forward to exciting articles, study strategies and current events on this blog - Anubhav Sinhal, Director, UT

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