Visakhapatnam: Even though the state government has not done away with the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) pattern, it has now brought in several reforms relating to exams and awarding internal marks to students of class VI to X.It has scrapped the ‘objective-type assessment with OMR-enabled multiple choice questions’ in Summative-I that had drawn criticism after it was introduced in 2017. Critics had pointed out that the pure objective-type question papers will leave no scope for analysis.Now, the exam will consist a mix of both descriptive and objective questions.A recent report of the state government observed that the OMR-based objective model exam system is putting a huge financial burden on the government and is not pedagogically advisable at that the school level.According to the observers, the rule of forwarding 20% marks from the internal examinations of classes VIII and IX to the final examination to class X may have resulted in paper leak. Given the controversial nature of the rule, the state government has also done away with it. Contrary to the earlier system of giving the 20 marks from all internal exams of class VIII, IX and X, the class X students will be now given 10% marks from four formative assessments (unit tests) and 10% marks from Summative-I of class X only.District education officer B Lingeswara Reddy said that the common summative examinations will be conducted from November 12 to 29 for class VI to X. “The Summative-I exam will comprise both descriptive and objective-model questions,” said Reddy.Andhra Pradesh Un-aided Schools Managements’ Association vice president MV Rao welcomed the state government’s decision and said that the descriptive paper will encourage students to read chapters and concepts in their entirety. “It will even improve their handwriting,” said Rao.The summative assessments (SA) were introduced as part of the CCE pattern from 2016-17 academic year for class VI to X. The SA system, which was a paradigm shift from the earlier District Common Examination Board (DECB), which had a common question paper for all schools in the state, irrespective of managements.Even, there has been about 500% increase in the number of students securing 10 GPA after the introduction of CCE system.The number jumped from 6,444 students in 2015-16 to about 30,000 students in 2017-18. At one point of time, the state government has mulled scrapping the system after there were alleged malpractices on the part of some private institutions for the internal marks.

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