The Himachal Pradesh Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Centre to allow the state to reintroduction of Class V and VIII board examinations till an effective evaluation system is evolved.
Cutting across party lines, members supported the official resolution moved by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who also holds the education portfolio. Moving the resolution, the Chief Minister said the implementation of a continuous evaluation system had led to decline in educational standards.
CM said that many reports of surveys conducted by various agencies have indicated the learning level of class V students has declined as they have not been taking studies seriously. He added that even the teachers were casual and were not taking much interest in the absence of an examination system. Chief Minister further recommends and requests the Union government to make an amendment in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
Singh said that a new clause “the state government shall provide for conduct of examinations for class V and VIII till a continuous evaluation system is implemented and to ensure that there is no board examinations till completion of elementary education” should be inserted in the Act.
Supporting the resolution, Leader of the Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal said this system of evaluation had totally failed in America and unfortunately, we had adopted the new system.
Dhumal said that the BJP had opposed the move of the Centre and he had even met the then Union Minster for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, but he did not relent.
He said the massive slide in learning levels came to light when an examination was conducted for granting scholarships to meritorious students as there was no Class V examination of the board. It was shocking that Class V students were not able to comprehend the books of Class II.
