External agency to monitor cumulative tests from next yr

Nagpur: With credibility of its mandatory cumulative test for STD I-VIII at stake, the state education department has decided to get it randomly monitored by an external agency from next year as part of its ‘checks and balances measure’. The cumulative tests are part of the annual tri-test package which aims to track progress of students in English and mathematics subjects. The test was supposed to be held on Oct 19 and 20 across the state but many schools delayed it by a couple of days, giving easy access to the question paper.TOI has also learnt that ‘hundreds of schools’ in Nagpur district, including those of CBSE, helped students to solve the test.
Nand Kumar, principal secretary for school education, said “From next year a third party will be roped in to conduct the same test for randomly selected students at each block level, at a neutral venue. If the test results for such students varies by more than 10% as compared to the rest of the block, then the block education officer will have to answer some tough questions.”
Since the cumulative tests are conducted and evaluated in-house, the onus lies on the schools holding it in a fair manner. Though these tests have no bearing on a student’s regular schooling, poor results could put the school itself in the dock. A principal, who did not wish to be identified, said “That (poor results) will trigger off a chain of letters, follow up meetings and unnecessary work for our already burdened staff. So while the tests were conducted fairly at my school, there are dozens that I know of where it was completely rigged.” With tests being delayed at many schools, because of the routine school exams, question paper got leaked from schools that had already conducted it. The paper leak however was not of any significance considering teachers at majority of schools literally dictated answers to students.
Kumar said, “We had about 6,000 of our staff conduct surprise checks at 24,000 schools across the state. There isn’t enough manpower right now to monitor everyone hence we had already put the clause for third-party monitoring in our previous circular regarding the test, but its implementation hasn’t happened yet.”