An Assessment Centre has been set up in the state under the SCERT to standardize teaching practices and assessments, and to monitor learning outcome from school to state level.
The centre will be made the axis of curriculum reform in a bid to improve the quality of education across the state in an equitable manner.
The ministry of human resources development has sanctioned Rs 48 crore for the functioning of this centre.
This initiative is a first of its kind in the country and will help the government of Chhattisgarh to develop its education map of learning levels in the state and to use assessments as a diagnostic and pedagogy tool to improve learning levels.
Normally no state conducts student assessments till grade VIII as standardized or full cohort assessments. Centralized tests such as this state-level assessment (SLA) will standardize evaluation process. The design for the SLA was finalized in a workshop held by the Department of School Education at SCERT from 10-11 January this year. 200 people from schools, DIETS, cluster, block, SCERT, Samgra Shishksha and 20 partnering organisations and consultants were present in that workshop.
The Assessment Centre was launched on August 19 with a 4-day orientation workshop involving 100 stakeholders selected from the state by Principal Secretary Education Gaurav Dwivedi, Mission Director Samagraha Shiksha P. Dayanand and Director SCERT, Shri Saurabh Kumar, Joint Secretary Sunita Jain, Additional Director SCERT.
“Every child in the state should have equal opportunities for learning with access to the best resources. These opportunities should not be limited to schools in the urban areas only but should reach rural and remote regions too. Although emphasis is being given on learning outcomes by academic institutions, but there is a gap between policy and practice,” Dwivedi said explaining the objective of the centre.
“Therefore, till the time this gap is not filled, the difference is not overcome, students will miss out on the right to quality education which supports learning with understanding and not rote learning. In the coming days our assessment centre will develop common standards which will also align teacher training material, study material, classroom practice and assessments for better educational outcomes in the state,” he added.
The centre will standardize teaching practice at a classroom level, including lesson plans, teaching strategies, competency based learning outcomes framework, evaluation from formative and summative assessments.
Question papers, training programmes will also be designed and delivered keeping in mind the classroom need and challenges, report cards, assessment schedules and research.
In this regard, a workshop was organised which was attended by participants who will manage and drive activities of the centre.
Already under the SLA, 1.2cr assessments papers of 30 lakhs students from 38000 schools were analyzed with analytics and technology tools.
