Home learning device (Edutor) Launches by IITians for students

Edutor

 Hyderabad-based Edutor technologies launched Edutor Advantage e40, India's first hand-held home learning device for school students. 

After a six-month pilot project, the firm, floated by a group of young IITians, launched the device designed for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) students from class 3 to class 10. 

The touchscreen device is preloaded with a student's class-specific, curriculum-aligned content.

Advantage e40's highly intuitive and interactive touch-screen interface and multi-media content ensures children are fully engaged, grasp concepts and remember them far more effectively, said a company official. 

The device also offers self-assessment with its practice tests and questions for every topic. Advantage e40 is aligned with CBSE's new Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) initiative. 

The device also features extra-curricular activities like basics of cricket, yoga, karate, spoken English content and Wikipedia topics. 

Ram Gollamudi, CEO of Edutor Technologies, told reporters that the firm planned to sell 30,000 to 40,000 devices in the next 18 months. 

"Edutor Advantage is designed to give Indian students a measurable home learning advantage. Advantage e40 user interface is very intuitive and easy to use for children of all ages," said Ram, an electronics engineer from the Indian Institute Of Technology  ( IIT)-Madras. 

"Research shows that when multiple senses such as sight, sound and touch are used simultaneously to learn, there is a significant boost in understanding and memory. Our device is based on the multi-sensory learning principle," said Ram, who spent the last 15 years in the US, working in tech firms. 

Priced at Rs.5,845 with four percent taxes, Edutor Advantage is available in leading bookstores. One-year content in the form of a chip is available at Rs.1,635. 

To start with, Edutor Technologies has rolled out its product in Hyderabad and other parts of Andhra Pradesh. It plans to extend its reach to other southern states before targeting the market in north India. 

As the country has 75,000 CBSE schools, Edutor is targeting a huge market. Ram pointed out that Hyderabad alone has 200,000 CBSE students.

Don’t disclose marks to students of Class X, CBSE

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked its schools “not to communicate the marks of summative assessment II (SA-II) to the candidates of Class X under any circumstances”.

This year’s batch of Class X students is the first to not take the Board exams, after the CBSE extended the new evaluation scheme of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) to this class as well. The scheme was introduced in Class IX initially.

Students taking the exams in March this year will be awarded grades and grade points in each subject instead of marks.

Under the CCE, students are evaluated throughout the year and both the scholastic and non-scholastic areas are taken into consideration. Summative assessments are the term-ending exams. In each term, there are two formative assessments (that test the non-scholastic areas) and one summative assessment (the pen and paper term-ending exam).

The summative assessment-I for classes IX and X was conducted in the second half of September.

The answer scripts of Class X students, meanwhile, will be evaluated internally by the school. The CBSE has also said they will provide the question paper to the schools. In fact, the CBSE will send a marking scheme to the schools for evaluation of papers by the teachers. Schools, however, have the freedom to involve teachers from other schools for evaluation of the answer scripts.

The CBSE will go for a “random verification of the assessment procedures of schools” through Board officials or nominees appointed by the Board.

The CBSE official said the Board will send separate CDs containing question paper banks for classes IX and X. The school may either pick up one question paper for each subject or mix and match the papers by using different questions or sections from different sets of question papers and prepare a question paper based on the Board’s sample paper, design and blueprint.

The Board also has given a choice to schools to “prepare their own question papers” as per the sample paper available on the CBSE website. In case a school prepares its own question papers, the authorities will have to send the question papers and marking scheme to the Board for verification within a week of conduct of the respective papers, officials said.

For Class IX, the Board plans to dispatch the CDs containing question papers to all schools that they to reach by February 20. The SA-II of both classes IX and X starts in March.

ICSE schools won't choose the way of CBSE

Although the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to make the annual board examination at the end of class X optional, the other pan-India board of secondary education, the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), has decided that all students must face the board examination, without exception.

There is no move to introduce a different system of evaluation akin to the CBSE's Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, (CCE), which takes account of a range of skills, apart from academics.

Principals of the ICSE schools in the city feel that a little stress as a teenager never did any harm. It is a challenge that students must face, and it will strengthen them and leave them better prepared to face examinations in future.

“The ICSE board should not make the examination optional. A board exam is any day better. It gives students an idea about where they stand, at the all-India level. Facing the first such examination at the age of 15 or 16 will leave the student better equipped for such examinations in future, and empower him/her to deal with other examinations they have to take for entry to professional courses and colleges with confidence,” said Radhika Lobo, principal, New Horizon Public School.

The principals added that the ICSE board had a record of conducting systematic and impartial examinations, so there was no question of undue stress. Besides, if the schools were allowed to conduct the final examination of their own, the whole seriousness of the exercise would get lost.

“The ICSE is organised and systematic. There is no reason to make the examination optional. The stress that children face in taking the examination is healthy,” said Sister Pauline, principal, Sacred Heart Girl's High School. She added that students who felt that they could not cope with the pressure of the board

examination already had other options — they could shift to another board, or take the open school route for higher education.

Father Celestine Sera, principal, St. Joseph's Boys' High School, said that the centralised correction process also ensured that there was fairness in the system, and all bias was ruled out. This too was one reason why it was healthy for students passing out of secondary school to take the board examination, he said.

He added that there was no need to divide students at the end of class ten, into two categories, those taking the board examinations and those choosing not to.

CBSE will verify evaluation of school-conducted exams

In order to make school-conducted Class X exams more credible, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will appoint officials to randomly verify assessment procedures.

The board has also directed schools to involve teachers of other schools in evaluation of exam papers, to avoid partiality.

These are part of a set of strict guidelines issued by CBSE on Wednesday, to be followed in the examinations of March this year.

“With the Class X exam becoming optional for the first time, students can now take school-conducted exams. However, with the issuance of guidelines, we want to ensure that school-based exam will maintain the high standards of the board,” said a senior CBSE official.

Since the schools will be conducting and evaluating exam papers, CBSE has strictly asked them not to communicate the marks of the students on their own. Once the evaluation of the answer papers is done by the schools, these should be sent to the board, so that results are declared by CBSE.

“The board would be declaring the results of class X in May, along with the results of board-based summative assessment. We will be issuing a uniform certificate to every student,” said MC Sharma, controller of examinations.“Through the guidelines, we have laid down procedures on how the summative assessment for class X students must be carried out,” he added.

The summative assessment in March represents the final leg of the assessment of students.

Schools will, however, continue to have the freedom to formulate their own question papers, use CBSE question papers’ bank or mix and match them. “In order to ensure standards, the question paper bank in different subjects would be sent by the board so as to reach schools in time. From the question paper bank, the schools can set their respective question papers,” stated the circular issued by CBSE.

Moreover, evaluation of answer scripts will be done by the school teachers themselves, on the basis of the marking scheme provided by the board. With the issuance of guidelines, CBSE hopes all the apprehensions of parents could be put to rest about the credibility of school-conducted exams.

For the first time, from this year onwards, Class X students will have the option of appearing either for the CBSE-conducted board examination or final class X test conducted by their respective schools.

The CBSE made class X board exams optional from 2011, as part of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system. Although there was some apprehension among parents, the number of students who have opted out of the board examination shows that the scheme has found favour with students.

In the very first year that the option has been made available, about two-thirds of students have opted out of the board exam. CBSE sources said about 5 lakh students have opted to go with the school examination. The total number of students studying in class X in schools affiliated to the CBSE across India is 8.23 lakh.DNA

CBSE class X exam not quite so fearsome in this year

This year’s is a batch of students at schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that will exercise a choice that others before them never had.

As class X students in CBSE schools prepare for their ‘term-ending’ examinations in March, they are privileged with the choice of either taking the board examination, or writing an exam conducted by the school.

With the introduction of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme, now students can choose to revise half the syllabus for the March examination. They have already completed a system of evaluation for the other half earlier.

CCE requires students to go through evaluation processes periodically.

There are formative assessment (FA) tests, and end-of-term summative assessment procedures (SA). There are thus tests spread out across the academic calendar, offering students the choice of doing away with the annual board examination of the CBSE.

Students are happy with the new scheme of assessment. The burden of mammoth coursework, usually associated with class X board examinations, has lifted. “I have opted out of the board examination. I will now be studying only half the syllabus in all subjects. I’m happy with this decision to write the examination conducted by my school,” said Akhil Verma, a class X student at a prestigious CBSE school in the city.

Akhil’s classmate Poornima P said that with the optional board exam, stress levels have gone down drastically. “I’m relaxed about the whole thing, and quite prepared for the school exam,” she said.

No more bitter competition
The CBSE made class X board exams optional from 2011, as part of the CCE system, introduced for classes IX and X in 2009. Although there was apprehension among parents, the number of students who opted out of the board examination shows that students have backed CCE to the hilt.

In the very first year,about two-thirds of students have opted out of the board exam. CBSE sources said around 5 lakh students (of the 8.23 lakh students in class X in CBSE schools across the country) have opted to go with the school examination.

Under CCE, an academic year is divided into two terms. There are two types of assessment procedures — formative assessment (FA), spread out across the year, and summative assessment (SA), conducted at the end of each of the two terms of the academic year.

The students are offered grades rather than marks, dulling the intense competitiveness. “The competition is not so bitter now,” says Manjula Raman, principal, Army Public School, Bangalore.

All schools to have websites by Mar 31

Now schools have websites

In line with directions of the Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSE) to bring transparency in the working of private schools and enable the parents to keep a tab on the performance of their children, most city schools are busy setting up their websites. CBSE had asked all private schools to launch their website by March 31.

The schools had been directed to upload the fee records and report cards of students so that their guardians can check these.

The school websites will enable parents to know what delegates in Continuing and Comprehensive Education ( CCE ) have discussed. Apart from this, it will bring about transparency in the working of private schools, including the admission process.

The websites are also supposed to have details of CBSE guidelines, numbers of teachers appointed, the average number of students, details of the fee structure, courses taught, contact numbers of the school administrators, infrastructure, salaries of teachers, names of the students, phone number of parents and their email IDs.

Principal of BCM Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar, Paramjit Kaur said it is not possible to mention the grades of the students on the website, adding that most of the other directions are already being followed by schools. TOI

No Boards hurdle, students prepare half of syllabus, aim for grades

Extended to Class X from this year, CCE has students studying for exams throughout the year instead of annual Boards

DHRUV Sharma, a Class X student of a school in Southwest Delhi, is preparing for his “term-ending” examination in March next year. Unlike earlier batches of Class X students who had to prepare for the entire syllabus for their Board exams, Dhruv is preparing for only half of the syllabus in all subjects.

Like Dhruv, thousands of Class X students across the Capital are upbeat about the upcoming exams, thanks to the reduced syllabus. This is the first batch of Class X students who were evaluated by the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) Scheme, introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) last year in Class IX and later extended to Class X.

“For the upcoming exams, the pressure to score high marks is not there, and the syllabus is half,” says Dhruv, student of Bal Bharati Public School, Dwarka. “But I had to study consistently through the year.”

Under the CCE Scheme, an academic year is divided into two terms — each has two formative assessments and a term-ending summative assessment (FA1, FA2 and SA1 in the first term, and FA3, FA4 and SA2 in the second term). Students are thus evaluated throughout the year.

The CCE also mandates that students be graded in all subjects. Says Akshita Khetrapal, a Class X student appearing for FA4 at her school in Dwarka, “Grades have made it easier. The stress is lower.”

Last year, while Class X students were awarded grades and grade points in each subject, they had to prepare for the whole syllabus. This year is different, and the students and their parents are more relaxed.

Says Mohini Bindra, principal of Ramjas School Pusa Road, “Class X students never participated in annual day functions earlier, but things have changed. This year, the whole class participated.” That might, however, have more to do with the fact that students are being graded not only in subjects, but also in co-scholastic areas — life skills, attitude toward teachers and schoolmates, and participation in school programmes and other activities. For the FAs, students were also given projects in different subjects throughout the year.

D K Bedi, principal of Apeejay School, Pitampura, says, “By December-end, parents of Class X students used to put a lot of pressure on them. That is gone now. Students are more relaxed.” He adds, “Also, since students have already appeared for FA3 in their second term and are left with FA4 and SA2, there is a lot less to prepare for.”

Usha Ram, principal of Laxman Public School, Hauz Khas, says, “Students are less burdened this time round. But we will hold a small pre-test before SA2 in our school so that students do not take their studies lightly.”

Some students, however, feel the earlier pattern was better. “I got the chance to revise the entire syllabus and brush up the topics I was weak in,” says Akshita. “Trigonometry, for example, was in our first term, in which I did not do well. It is included in the syllabi of Classes XI and XII. I wanted to revise the subject before going to Class XI. But now I don’t have that chance.”

Grades

The report card has three sections

Scholastic Areas: Divided into two parts — 1A (subjects) and 1B (work experience, art education, physical and health education.

* Scores in 1A are awarded on a nine-point scale.

* Students getting 91-100 per cent in a subject are awarded A1 grade and a grade point of 10.

* Students getting 81-90 per cent get A1 and a grade point of 9.

* Student getting 71-80 per cent get B1 and a grade point of 8.

Co-scholastic areas

Divided into 2A and 2B

Comprise

A: Life Skills: Thinking skills; social skills; emotional skills

B: Attitudes and Values: Towards teachers; schoolmates; school programmes; environment value systems

Co-Scholastic activities

3A and 3B. Any activity (like literary skills, music; Physical and Health Education.

Comprise:

Literary and creative skills; scientific skills; aesthetic and performing skills; clubs (eco clubs, health and wellness and others)

* Students also get a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) at the end of the academic year. They can calculate their approximate percentage in a subject by multiplying the grade point scored in that subject with a factor of 9.5.

No failures

The practice of declaring compartment/fail has been discontinued. Candidates who obtain qualifying grades (D and above) in all subjects, excluding the additional subject, has to be given a qualifying certificate. Candidates who obtain grade E1 or E2 in a subject are told to improve their performance through five subsequent attempts. Those who do not get qualifying grades in all subjects, excluding the additional subject, are not permitted to continue to Class XI.IE

CBSE set to scrap Class 12 exam

class 12th exams

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is continuing with its efforts to ease the burden of exams on its students.After having made Class X exams optional, the board now aims at scrapping the Class XII board exams.

At the recently concluded 17th National Annual Conference of Sahodaya School Complexes 2010 held in Bangalore, CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi hinted that Class XII board exams would also be made optional in the near future.

Sources at CBSE said that the Class XII board exam is likely to become optional from 2013 onwards. The board’s latest initiative to do-away with Class XII board exam is part of its ongoing education reform, under the guidance of ministry of human resource development (MHRD).

Joshi also said that the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme, currently applicable for students of Classes VI to X, would soon be extended to Class XI and XII.

The CCE scheme was introduced in 2009 in order to encourage a holistic assessment of students, including in co-scholastic areas of life skills, attitudes and values, sports and games, as well as co-curricular activities. One of the highlights of the CCE scheme is that there will be no bo

ard examination for Class 10 from 2011 for students in CBSE schools, and who do not wish to move out of the CBSE system after Class X.

In fact, in its maiden year when CBSE gave an option for students to opt out of board exams, 2/3rd of them had opted out of board exam. According to the sources, about five lakh students from senior secondary schools have opted out of the Class X board examinations that will be conducted in March 2011.

The total number of students studying in the Class X in schools affiliated to the CBSE across India is 8,23,125.

In order to make the CCE scheme successful, Joshi emphasised proper training of teachers. “The board is closely working with its various schools and teachers to make the CCE successful. The board is stressing the need to develop better coordination among the teachers in order to implement CCE,” added Joshi.

From 2009, the board has been conducting regular teachers’ training programmes on CCE, across the country. Joshi also stressed the need to empower teachers to make all the reforms introduced by CBSE successful. The CBSE has already started conducting special induction programmes to train principals of schools across the country.

Joshi said that the board was working with private companies to build a curriculum to empower teachers.

CBSE is the first among the 41 boards in the country to take bold steps like making Class X exams optional for students and introducing CCE, where students will be assessed throughout the year in various scholastic and co-scholastic activities.

About 11,550 schools in India are affiliated to the board, which alsohas 153 affiliated schools in 23 foreign countries.DNA

CBSE to make digital classrooms compulsory

 The Central Board of Secondary Education has issued a directive to all affiliated schools to set up digital classrooms from primary to secondary level. Till recently, such classrooms were a boon to some schools but now they will become a part of every institution. 

In the last decade, classrooms with projector and computer had attracted a large number of parents who were eager to have latest teaching technology in schools. "Schools like Mayo College, MGD of Jaipur and others adopted the new technology to keep pace with the time and that helped them improve their results," said a retired principal of a private school. Slowly, other schools also adopted this technology but now it will become a feature of all the CBSE schools. More interestingly, setting up of digital classrooms will not be limited to science or mathematics classes but for every subject.

The board issued a directive to all school principals saying that after CCE evaluation system, the school should have digital classrooms. "The HRD ministry has announced 2010-20 as decade of reasoning and critical thinking and the board is implementing information and communication technology (ICT) in schools to get the maximum output," said Vineet Joshi, chairman of CBSE in his letter to schools.

Now, as per the board, every student of primary level should know how to handle computer and internet and student of middle classes should know how to gather information from internet and how to analyze it on computer through charts and diagram. Students of secondary and senior secondary should know how to make reports on given subject and information they get from internet. C should know about biochemistry, nanotechnology and other high level subjects. "The technology cannot turn bad teachers into good but it will help good teachers to become better," added Joshi.

According to the board, every digital classroom should have a projector with a big screen sufficient enough for the students to read without stress on eyes. The classrooms should have electronic interactive white board system. There should be a computer and UPS for every class. There should be a digital library for every subject. There will be an electronic response system in every class to calculate the period that is taken by students to understand the lesson and there will be a resource person who helps teachers in digital classrooms.

The state government has also started a drive to convert the classrooms of government schools to digital under Rashtriya Vishesh Madhiyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RVMSA) and the education department has asked school heads about their requirements. "The government school teachers are regularly getting training in computers in ET cell to set up system in their schools. Most of the senior and secondary level schools are having computer labs and internet facility," said Umesh Sharma, supervisor of government ET cell in Ajmer.TOI

CBSE school heads to discuss, debate CCE at national conference

Several school heads from the city are among those dissecting the various facets of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) to better understand and implement it at the 17th annual conference of CBSE Sahodaya School Complexes. The event, which began in Bangalore on Monday and is scheduled to continue on Tuesday, is a meeting of representatives from school associations across the country.

Organised under the theme, Managing change for better learning', the conference will look at key issues such as school-based assessment, addressing resistance to change, teacher empowerment, embedding technology in the CCE environment and dimensions of co-scholastic skills.

"We are here because we see the conference as a good forum to discuss and debate the positives and negatives of CCE. We are also looking to get inputs on assessment since it is a new system. As principals, we need to equip our teachers with the know-how and come up with a good method to assess children," said Margrette David Raj, principal of Bhakthavatsalam Vidyashram and chairperson of the CBSE Chennai Sahodaya School Complexes. About 15 representatives from schools in the city are participating in the conference, she added.

 CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi and Sadhana Parashar, Head (Innovation and Research), CBSE, were also scheduled to attend the event.

Recognising the need to train greater focus on the issue of assessment, the CBSE is also organising an international conference on the subject in January 2011. Slated to be conducted in association with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and Sahodaya School Complexes (Gurgaon Chapter), the conference will look to address the scope of assessment in teaching and learning. Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal will inaugurate the event.

The conference will deal with topics such as understanding best assessment practices, using assessment to monitor teacher effectiveness to encourage school improvement, developing a support system for using assessments in classroom and policy changes in the new educational framework for improved assessments. TOI

CBSE will keep track of progress over CCE in over 10,500 schools

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) would use a special software solution to collect and analyse all the data related to Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme.

Sources said that the board had decided to capture data related to CCE from affiliated schools of the board through an application software which would be both offline and online. The software will cover CCE-related data of about 10 lakh candidates from at least 10,500 schools across the country.

“The idea of using technology is to systematise data collection. With the implementation of CCE, data collection has become very important. Every school has a huge amount of data. Technology comes in handy to deal with the vast resources, to preserve and analyse them in a scientific manner,” said a CBSE official.

Sources at CBSE said that the aim of the special software was to standardise the whole process of CCE. “We want to give a universal touch to the whole collection, evaluation and analysis of data, as part of CCE scheme. With the use of high software technology, we will standardise the process of CCE scheme, for both schools and CBSE board,” said an official from the board.

To deploy the technology, the board has asked software firms to bid for a tender to execute its project titled ‘Web-based software development for data collection/capturing of mark/ descriptive indicators/grades for scholastic and co-scholastic areas’ by December 1.

“We are looking for software firms with at least five years of experience with proven track record of software development for educational institutions and domain expertise in education. The bidder firms should have a previous record of successfully implementing CCE solution or equivalent in at least 10 schools. The agency should have its own software team for study, design, testing and implementation of the software and to provide appropriate technical support to the board, as and when required,” said BM Gupta, head (Computer Centre), CBSE .

The decision of the board has been welcomed by schools in Bangalore affiliated to CBSE.

“With the use of technology, data pertaining to CCE scheme will be at the click of a mouse. Moreover, retrieval of data will also become easy now,” said Chitra Sharma, vice-principal, Delhi Public School (South), Bangalore.

The board introduced the CCE scheme for classes IX and X from the academic session 2009-10. It was also introduced in all schools affiliated to the board. Under the scheme, a student has to engage and perform in various scholastic and co-scholastic areas for two years as per scheme of studies.

The scheme, introduced to come up with a holistic assessment of a learner, includes co-scholastic area of life skills, attitudes and values, sports and games, as well as co-curricular activities. One of the main highlights of CCE is that there are no Class X board examination from 2011 for students studying in CBSE’s senior secondary schools and those who do not wish to move out of the syllabus after Class X.

Experts say that CCE would help both the students and parents, who are the primary stakeholders of school education. The board, through CCE scheme, aims at reducing stress and anxiety level among school kids, which is widely found due to the constant pressure to perform.DNAINDIA