Updated on: Sunday, September 12, 2010
To evaluate curriculum and educational standards at schools, the Government said it will set up a centre for assessment and evaluation within the CBSE by this year-end.
"The centre will be set up by December and will act as an independent body as it matures," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Its broad objectives will be to assess and evaluate the curriculum, examination system and education standards at the schools, hitherto non-existent at this level.
At present, there are national agencies like National Accreditation and Assessment Authority and National Board of Assessment which are into assessment of higher and technical educational institutions. However, there is no national agency for assessment of standards of education at school level.
Deliberating on this issue at the state education ministers' conference in June this year, Sibal had sought their support in this endeavour.
He had said that each school board has its own system of examination but there was no mechanism to know the standard of the assessment system of the school boards.
Talking to media today, Sibal also said they plan to come up with a common curriculum for Commerce stream by September.
He also released the first Newsletter of the Department of Higher Education under the HRD Ministry.
It aims to keep the citizens informed of the activities of the department and also provide a forum to articulate views and comments on how the Ministry could further design public policies of higher education and improve programme delivery.
The bilingual quarterly is essentially online with limited printed copies for circulation.
Teachers, students, academics, administrators, representatives of management of institutions, alumni and all those who wish Indian higher education system to improve have been invited to contribute to the newsletter.