Aug.–Sep. is the pilot run period for new progress cards that measure students’ holistic development; teacher preparation will be Principal Subject: CBSE Secretary

While the structure for upper classes is still being worked out, the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has unveiled the new report cards for kindergarten through class two, called Holistic Progress Cards (HPC). According to CBSE Secretary Himanshu Gupta, in an interview with News18, the Board intends to test the holistic evaluation for all classes from August to September.

With the use of the updated progress cards, teachers may now assess pupils more deeply than simply their academic standing. The reform has been implemented in accordance with the new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which called for an evaluation of students’ abilities and aspects, including personal development, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation, self-reflection, and emotional application in the classroom, in addition to academic performance.

In order to provide fundamental learning, the progress card for kindergarten through primary school students will primarily include qualitative input from the instructors as well as the students themselves, classmates, and parents.

In December 2023, Gupta, an IAS official from the AGMUT cadre who was recruited in the 2012 batch, was named secretary of the board. He was the director of education at the Delhi government’s Department of Education before this. Education being his specialty, Gupta said that in 2024–2025, he would concentrate mostly on educating teachers, creating new training materials, introducing new courses like Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools, and introducing vocational skills starting in class 6. He also discussed how technology and artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to monitor school activities and identify anomalies in internal assessments as well as mock schools. This way, education quality can be continuously improved.

Revised Excerpts:

When can we anticipate the introduction of the new Holistic Progress Cards (HPC) for use in school assessments?

A. The Holistic Progress Cards (HPC) for grades 1 through 2 are already available, and we plan to issue them this year as well. The HPC for higher grades is currently under development. The major courses in the HPC will be assessed by parents, peers, and instructors alike. Peers will provide feedback on the students’ thoughts about themselves and their classmates. Many other nations, like Finland, which has one of the most well-known educational systems in the world, adopt holistic evaluation. Higher-level courses will include additional competency-based components and learning goals covering topics like creativity, decision-making, interpersonal skills, and applying theory to practical settings, among other things. We want to provide teacher training on the same subject and implement a trial programme for all classrooms from August to September.

What areas of concentration do you have for 2024–2025?

A major emphasis on teacher preparation will be placed on how to apply the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE). In addition, new courses like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are being taught at schools. We are awaiting books that are being prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) since a major emphasis will be on imparting vocational skills starting in class 6. It would depend on how the NCERT develops these books and what exercises they contain for teaching skills for middle school students, but I think skills like carpentry, electric work, and gardening are such that they may be presented at early levels. After that, we will create teacher-training modules in line with that, and the programme will be introduced in schools. Teacher training is one area that will continue to be the focus of modules that are being produced based on the NEP, which is the guiding document that includes art-based learning, play-based learning, and many other features. As we have not yet gotten the updated books from NCERT, the academics department has already sent out a circular to all the schools stating that the books used last year would be used this year as well. The new session has begun. We were told by the Council that the volumes were nearing completion.

Q. Why has the board been taking harsh measures against phoney schools?

A. After analysing data, we determined that we had to take action because school principals had been telling us for some time that there were fake schools operating all over the country, including the national capital, and that students would request a transfer certificate (TC) after class 10 to claim they were going to different locations, like Kota, for entrance exam coaching. Inspections were conducted in December 2022, and these schools received show-cause notes as a result. After reviewing the replies the schools had submitted, we took appropriate action against them. Across the nation, we degraded three schools and disaffiliated twenty. In all, seventy-one instructors were sent in various teams to check thirty-five schools around the states; twenty-three of those schools exhibited anomalies. Delhi topped the list of all the locations with five of these institutions, followed by other states like Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

How does the Board intend to carry out the crackdown and guarantee that there are no such schools operating?

A. Absolutely, we want to carry out a significant crackdown again the following year. When there is a sudden spike in the number of students enrolling in classes 11 and 12 as opposed to classes 9 and 10, we will use artificial intelligence (AI) and all other available methods. We’re going to act decisively. The majority of them are private schools; however, others, like Rahul International, are part of larger networks. Then there are a few independent schools. They gain affiliation at first, but even though they lack sufficient infrastructure, they subsequently add new parts. We verified the data using our internal system, and it revealed a significant rise in the number of students applying to classes 11 and 12, which differed greatly from the number of students enrolled in classes 9 and 10.

What kind of AI are you using? How does the Board use technology to look for anomalies?

A. We use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify the schools utilising our own IT platform. Our specialised IT team of thirty professionals uses a variety of software tools to comb through data, looking for anomalies and analysing trends and changes related to different aspects of academic life, including board results, student grades from internal and external assessments, and whether or not schools are manipulating data related to internal assessments, among other things. The system displays the difference whenever it identifies a significant variance between the internal and external evaluation grades, such as when a student receives full marks in the practical but performs below average in the theoretical. We have compiled a list of these schools and sent them letters requesting an explanation for the discrepancy. The software for this was released last year, and in the first three months of this year, we discovered that almost 10,000 class 12 pupils nationwide had such a wide range in their grades. The schools have received a warning, and they will be subject to consequences if they carry out the practice. Considering that more than 17 lakh CBSE students sit for the class 12 board examinations each year, the statistic is significant.