The Evaluation Process:

Ongoing System of Continuous & Comprehensive evaluation at the Primary Education Level: Further Development

With the introduction of the renewed curriculum in 1981 the system of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) started being implemented at the primary education level in West Bengal. The renewed curriculum and syllabuses introduced from the academic session of 2004-05 also proposed to strictly adhere to the system but with certaint. refi ments. The Education Commission (Ashok Mitra Commission)
... ap ointed by the Government of West Bengal in 1992 initially examined the status of implementation of the system and identified the weaknesses and suggested certain remedial measures. The West Bengal Board of Primary Education in its bid to make the system more realistic and more effective has been advocating the administration of the entire system in four distinct segments :
1. Instant tests / tests on sub-unit of a lesson
2. Unit Test
3. Periodic or Terminal Evaluation
4. Summative Evaluation
It is true that success of the administration of the system much lies with the teachers. In spite of best of the efforts it appears that, all the teachers are yet to be given necessary orientation in this respect in a continuous process.
5. External Evaluation and Diagnostic Achievement Test as Integral Parts of CCE:Application of the CCE at the micro level often fails to detect the intra-state regional or inter-district disparities in achievement levels of pupils as well as to identify the hard spots in curriculum. Basically with a view to removing these deficiencies and to make a mid course corrections, if necessary, the Board as has been mentioned earlier, introduced in 1999 an External Evaluation now being held externally every year during April-May for the students completing just two years of schooling (i.e., at the end of Class II). Tests on uniform items in the subjects like First Language (Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Telugu and Oriya), Second Language (English) and Arithmetic are administered throughout the State in three days. Spot evaluation is done just after the completion of the tests. Similarly a centrally administered Diagnostic Achievement Test is conducted by the Board every year starting from the year 2005 with the objective to identify the strengths and weakness, if any of the students at the end of class IV i.e., students just completing a cycle of four years of schooling. More details about the external evaluation have been given below.