The Karnataka state government is pushing the evaluation system several steps backward. The RTE Act, 2009 had stipulated school-based assessment such as continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) The Karnataka state government’s decision to revive board exams in classes V and VIII is in keeping with the post-RTE (Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009) trend. Several state governments taking advantage of an amendment forced into RTE’s original text and rationale for banning board exams throughout the eight years of compulsory elementary education, have already done this. The word ‘board’ evokes fear in every Indian student’s heart. No matter how hard working a student is, the prospect of a board exam instills instant anxiety. What is a ‘board’ and how did this word acquire this stressful connotation? In the western world, boards are elected bodies that manage the public education system. In India, they emerged during the colonial period from the need to govern the crucial matriculation exam in a confidential manner. Secrecy was the key to their role and functioning. Colonial rulers didn’t trust teachers to assess children studying under them. Therefore, externally conducted exams were deemed necessary. The exam paper, i.e, questions, the paper setter, and evaluator were all shrouded in secrecy. On the other side, the identity of every student was also firmly encoded, with the help of roll numbers. The marks a student attained remained a secret until the result was declared. It was a dramatic moment. Newspapers carried roll numbers of successful candidates and the ‘divisions’ they were placed in. The long gap between the board exams and the day the results were made public caused as much anxiety as the period preceding the exam. ‘Preparation leave’ before the board exam was a common feature of colonial societies. No classes were held during this period. Before exams started, students were stripped of access to the library. They had to acquire a ‘no objection certificate’ from the library, science labs and even the NCC officer-in-charge. It was necessary to obtain an entrance ticket for the exam hall. And when all the ‘papers’ were over, the long wait for the result began. No one could be sure about what might happen. Everyone at home and the school shared the anxiety of examinees. Readers must be wondering why I have used the past tense throughout the previous para. They would be right to be curious about this usage because the fact is that the exam rituals I have described are intact and functional to this day. And not just school exams, colleges and universities follow the norm of depriving students of library rights before exams. It is an expression of institutional distrust in the young. It has an element of bureaucratic callousness as well. The system forces teachers to adopt a hands-off attitude in board exams season. Many among them do participate in marking of answer sheets, but they do so as anonymous entities, for a modest fee. By deciding to reintroduce board exams for classes…
