National Achievement Survey 2015 India’s Premier School Examinations Board

An EW extrapolation of the recently published National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2015, which for the first time measured the real learning outcomes of class X students of schools affiliated with 33 school examination boards countrywide, indicates that the Delhi-based CISCE is the country’s #1 school examinations board: Dilip Thakore In a surprise verdict, the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE, estb.1958) has been adjudged India’s best school-leaving examinations board. This verdict is the outcome of a first-ever National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2015, which measured the learning outcomes of a sample database of 277,416 class X students of 7,216 schools affiliated with two pan-India and 31 state government examination boards. The randomly selected students were administered standardised tests in five subjects (English, maths, science, social science and the dominant state language) by the Delhi-based National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) over five months. The results of this unprecedented survey were released in Delhi by NCERT on March 16. This result is surprising because NCERT is a subsidiary organisation of the Union ministry of human resource development (HRD) presided by iron lady Smriti Irani. And the surprise element is that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — the country’s largest pan-India examinations board which has 17,453 primary-secondary schools countrywide affiliated with it — also a subsidiary of the HRD ministry, has come second. In the circumstances, it redounds to the credit of NCERT that it has broadcast the results of a survey certain to cause heart-burn in the boardrooms of CBSE and Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi which houses the Union HRD ministry. Little wonder that Gerry Arathoon, an alumnus of Osmania University and Regional College of Education, Bhubaneswar, who acquired valuable teaching and administrative experience in St. Thomas’ Boys School, Kolkata and as deputy secretary of CISCE’s East Zone office and currently the chief executive and secretary of CISCE, is delighted with the results of NCERT’s first-ever measurement of learning outcomes of class X students of 33 exam boards countrywide. “It’s very satisfying to learn that class X students of CISCE schools have outperformed their counterparts in CBSE and the state boards in four out of five subjects of the first-ever standardised countrywide test. I congratulate all CISCE-affiliated schools. The results of the survey are very encouraging and reinforce our board’s deep commitment to continuously strive for academic excellence,” says Arathoon. According to Arathoon, the excellent performance of CISCE students in the inaugural NAS 2015 is attributable to deep research and continuous upgradation of the board’s syllabi prescribed for affiliated schools. “The CISCE board has always strived to forge ahead with new ideas and innovations to ensure that the teaching-learning process is a dynamic and rewarding experience. The council has kept pace with the changing scenario by ensuring that in addition to conforming with contemporary global education trends, its prescribed syllabi are also relevant, flexible and meaningful in content, and provide students with a strong base for future studies. This has been substantiated by the NAS survey…