Replace exams with lottery

If the idea is put to a referendum, we suspect it will actually pass with a wide margin. It also illustrates why a "republic" works and a pure democracy does not.

When Kapil Sibal started sending feelers to the press, we were not quite sure the dude was going to actually follow through with his plan. For one thing, something as significant as this can not be initiated without buy-in from the political spectrum and of course the high command.

In any case, for now, the mandate appears to be only for CBSE.

The nine-point scale will start from A1(with 91-100 marks, exceptional), A2(81-90, excellent), B1(71-80, very good), B2(61-70, good), C1(51-60, fair), C2(41-50, average), D(33-40, below average), E1(21-32, needs improvement) and E2(00-20, unsatisfactory).

"This is good system which will very well judge the potential of a student," Sibal said.

Frankly, we do not see how this solves the "suicide" problem. Absent any clear statistics, one has to rely on newspaper reports. Students at all levels commit suicide. How many of them commit suicide for purely academic reasons?

If anything, the new grade system has the potential to put more kids at suicide risk. A kid scoring 90 will be one full grade behind the kid scoring 91. Won't pushy parents insist their kids get the highest grade? Will the system make parents scramble for ICSE boards?

Of course, seasoned readers of this blog know that the "suicide solution" trojan horse will eventually morph into the big beast of "social justice":

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system will be put in place from October this year for those who are completing class-X in 2011. The CCE refers to a system of school-based evaluation of students, covering all aspects of pupils' development. It will cover the co-curricular activities, besides the core areas of subjects being studied in the classes. The CCE system will have two components -- formative assessment and summative assessment.

The formative assessment will be based on whole range of tests like interview, quiz, project work and practical assignments. It takes care of scholastic as well as co-scholastic aspects of pupils' growth. The scholastic aspects include curricular areas or subjects specific areas, while co-scholastic aspects include life-skills, attitude and values, physical and health related activities.

Formative and summative assessment? Co-scholastic aspects? WTF!!?

There are only two possibilities:

(a) They are letting Kapil Sibal play social reformer: good for the news wires and socialist intellectuals, a talking point of no consequence and lot of hot air. Proposal stays limited to CBSE X board exam, to be forgotten in due time.

(b) A precursor to bigger things to come.

We suspect the secular party wants to do a deep re-engineering of the entire exam system based approach. Social justice requires obfuscation. Grades are better than numbers. Naturally the "co-scholastic" aspects of a student will also involve caste and religion.