COIMBATORE: The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has drawn criticism from teachers for its decision to appoint BEd students to evaluate the learning outcome of government school students in the Ennum Ezhuthum (EE) mission under third-party evaluation method. The evaluation of students of Classes 1 to 3 would be held across the state from September 1 to 15.
“Due to the pandemic, government school students couldn’t learn properly. To address the education gap, the school education department introduced the EE mission for students in the last academic year. To assess the results of the mission, SCERT would engage BEd students from government, aided and private colleges under the supervision of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) lecturers,” sources added.
Kala (name changed), a primary school teacher in Tiruppur, told TNIE, “Already, Block Resource Teacher Educators and Block Educational Officers, lecturers at DIETs are evaluating students’ learning outcome during every term. If there is any deficiency in the teaching method, as per officer’s direction, we are taking efforts to improve it. In this situation, SCERT is engaging BEd students, who have no idea about the Ennum Ezhuthum scheme, to evaluate children.”
Shankar (name changed), a teacher in Coimbatore, said, “Due to various activities such as administrative works, preparing students for competitions and assessment, the teaching atmosphere collapsed in the classroom and students are affected.”
The general secretary of All India Federation of Elementary Teachers Organization V Annamalai said, “Evaluation of school children by BEd students is unacceptable. Also, it will undermine teaching ability of teachers.”
A lecturer from a DIET told TNIE, “To analyse the students’ learning outcome from the EE mission, evaluation will be held. For instance, this evaluation will be held at 135 primary and middle schools. Due to the shortage of lecturers and BRTEs, SCERT planned to involve the BEd students in the process. We need a minimum of 110 enumerators for each district. For this, we will give three days of training to BEd students on field investigation and evaluation of EE.” Repeated attempts to contact SCERT Director Latha went in vain.