Do we need a Class VII exam barrier today? The debate is still on

One of the great failings of our education system is that we tend to focus on those who are succeeding in exams, and there are plenty of them. But what we should also be looking at, and a lot more urgently is those who fail
- Michael Morpurgo (b.1943), English author and poet

While Karnataka has been in a political turmoil with turncoat legislators disqualified and nearly all of them winning a fresh mandate from electors now lobbying for plum portfolios and the original batch of ministers also in quest of retaining or angling for plum portfolios, one minister stands out for taking his allotted portfolio seriously. He is Education Minister Suresh Kumar. He has been crisscrossing the state, interacting with school management, teachers and students. Now he has come out with a new policy that not only dismisses the looming fear of public exams at the end of Class VII but also offers hope to the potentially failing students. But first, the facts as reported in The New Indian Express (8/1/20).

In what comes as a major relief, Class VII students will not have to write public exams but instead, take up Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation Exams (CCE). State Education Minister Suresh Kumar on January 7, 2020, clarified that students will not write a public exam. The examination will be held in March 2020, during which students will be evaluated on the basis of the syllabus covered over a period of six months. From the next year, the full-year portions, just like final exams, will be covered in the CCE exams. 

A common question paper will be set up for each subject for students pursuing Class VII. Since there will be no public exam, students will not be passed or failed. The exercise is being done with an aim to inculcate a sense of confidence among students and ensure they overcome their fears, the minister said. The idea, he added, is to find out the weak subjects of the students and where special attention is needed by the teachers. 

The minister said that a trial was done in Kalaburgi that children needed help in Mathematics and Science. In some other districts of North Karnataka, languages were a problem. In a meeting with principals of PUC colleges, it was found that students were not academically good. So this exercise will help students and prepare the foundation from Class VIII.

Thus, the new exercise is being done with an aim to inculcate a sense of confidence among students and ensure they overcome their fears. This is in keeping with the starting quote which seeks to take care of the ‘failures’ too.