The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

CBSE to introduce grading system
Monica Sharma

Chandigarh, March 7
The much maligned evaluation system being followed in schools will be replaced by the grading system from 2001-2002 academic session, in the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the region.

As a part of the scheme, students of class IX of all schools affiliated to the board will be judged under a “School-based evaluation’’ on the directions of the CBSE from the current academic session.

The Director Public Instructions, UT (Schools), Mr D.S. Saroya, said under the grading system students would be judged on the basis of their individual academic performance, health status, personal and social qualities, attitudes and values, co-curricular activities, outdoor activities, besides attendance.

On the basis of their performance, the students would be allotted grades ranging from, Grade A (excellent), B (very good), C (good), D (average) and E (below average).

According to sources, the Indian Council of School Certificate Examination has been using grading system for the past some years at the school level. The CBSE tried to introduce the system some years ago, but had to revert back to the old system in the wake of adverse public opinion and resistance from universities. Now the CBSE as well as the ICSE indicate both grades and marks in the marks sheets, but the system of declaring pass and fail continues in all the boards.

With the introduction of grading, the negative effect of pass or fail will be completely eliminated as the performance of individual student will be rated in terms of grades and no grade will signify the failure of a student.

Sources said previous education committees had found that ‘Learners’ evaluation is a process of collecting, analysing and interpreting evidences to judge the level of achievement acquired by an individual learner or a group of learners in cognitive and non-cognitive domains for the purpose of making a variety of decisions. But the present method of evaluation leaves much to be desired.

The evaluation of the non-cognitive aspect of learners personality which is equally significant is totally ignored. Not only this even in cognitive areas it fails to measure the growth of a learner on a continuous basis because of its sporadic operation.

A government school teacher says, ‘’ teachers evaluation can never be completely devoid of subjectivity, be it carried out in terms of marks or grades. The fact is that all methods of human assessment have problems but this should not deter efforts to minimise the errors of assessment. It is easy to identify imperfections in grading but it is difficult to propose a satisfactory alternative.’’

Despite several limitations, grading remains the only feasible procedure for evaluating the students potential realistically. Moreover all arguments against it can be countered by laying adequate emphasis to improve the ways and means of awarding the grades so as to make them more reliable and valid.

The DPI, Mr Saroya said, ‘’ the system of declaring students pass or fail encourages commercialisation of education. A lot of institutions running in urban areas are teaching shops which claim to manage for the students the highest marks in the examination. Obviously availability of this type of education is the privilege of a limited few who have the capacity to pay. In fact, the failure of the students should be considered as a failure of the institutions and the teachers.’’

Criticism by educationists, that the abolition of pass-fail practice would lead to a chaotic situation as there would be no distinction between good performers and bad performer, does not hold good as the performances of the students in the new system are graded into a number of categories which make them distinctly different from each other.

COURTS

HIGH COURT
Sentence confirmed for triple murder
Our Legal Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 7
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today confirmed the death sentence awarded to Lehna, a resident, of Rukhi village in Sonepat district, who was ordered to be hanged till death by the Additional Sessions Judge, Sonepat in a judgement on December 6, 2000.

The Bench, comprising Mr Justice H.S. Bedi and Mr Justice A.S. Garg, also dismissed the appeal filed by the convict..

The convict is alleged to have axed to death his mother, brother and sister-in-law on the night of August 6, 1998. The F.I.R. in the case was registered by Lal Singh, the father of the accused. It was stated that Lehna was a bad character and a drunkard. He was given two acres of land for cultivation, but could not look after it and was trying to alienate it. The father took the land back for which he was having grudge about the partition. He also had a fight with family members, but the dispute was settled.

The petitioner submitted that on August 5, 1998, Jai Bhagwan, his son, and wife, Saroj, were sleeping on the roof of the house, while the complainant and his wife, Manbhari, and grandsons, Chand and Wazir were sleeping in the courtyard. At about 1.30 a.m. they heard a sound on the roof of the house and when they reached the roof they saw that the accused, was armed with “gandasa”. He inflicted blows on Saroj and on Jai Bhagwan. After that he ran towards them and reached the courtyard where he inflicted two or three blows by the gandasa on the neck of his wife, Manbhari. When the petitioner and his grandson, Chand tried to intervene, he inflicted two blows on Chand as well and ran away. They also inflicted some injuries on Lehna in self-defence, but his wife, son and son’s wife succumbed to their injuries.

The Additional Sessions Judge, while awarding the death sentence to the accused, had observed that the convict had caused the death of three members of his family in a very cruel and dastardly manner, which was sufficient to hold that it was the rarest of the rare cases in which the death sentence must be imposed.

Notice to minister on appointment

A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Mr Justice J.L. Gupta and Mr Justice R. C. Kathuria today issued notice to Mr Gobind Singh Kanjla, Punjab’s Minister for Social Security Women and Child Development, for April 27 for making the appointment of Parminder Kaur as Supervisor in the Social Security Department in spite of the fact that the High Court had held her ineligible for the appointment.

The order was passed by the court on a petition filed by Kanchan Bala and other anganwadi workers who had challenged the appointment of Parminder Kaur as being violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

It was submitted by the petitioners that Parminder Kaur was appointed as Supervisor on a temporary basis for 89 days. On March 17, 1997 her services were terminated which she challenged in the High Court and a Division Bench upheld the termination and held that she was not eligible and qualified for appointment.

DISTRICT COURTS
Produce respondent in court: judge
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 7
The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.K.Goel, today directed counsel for ASI Ram Rattan to produce the respondent at 10 a.m. tomorrow before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh.

Accepting the revision petition filed by the Public Prosecutor, Mr Rajinder Singh, against the judgement of the Additional CJM, the Judge ordered the trial court to reconsider the issue of police remand sought by the Chandigarh Administration.

The Judge observed that the respondent had filed an application for the grant of anticipatory bail and the said application was heard by Mr R.C.Godara, Additional Sessions Judge. Mr Godara had observed that the counsel for the applicants had then argued that if the dowry articles were recovered, they were ready to pay the amount equal to the value of the dowry articles in the court itself. So the applicants cannot be denied bail under the provisions of Section 438, Cr PC. This contention , in my opinion, cannot be accepted.

Later the ASI had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court for bail. Mr Justice S.S.Nijjar, before whom the case had come up for hearing , had observed “Ï have perused the order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge of Chandigarh. I am unable to myself to take a different view than the one taken by the Additional Sessions Judge.”

Mr Goel observed that there was nothing before the trial court to show that the recovery of the dowry articles was affected after declining of the bail application by the High Court on February 23 .

Food adulteration cases

Nathu Ram, a resident of Mani Majra, was sentenced to six-month rigorous imprisonment today by the UT Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash, in a case under the Food Adulteration Act.

The Food Inspector had inspected the premises of the accused and found 20 bricks of ice-cream in his possession meant for public sale. The accused had stored it in a freezer in his factory. The Inspector purchased 900 gm of ice-cream against the payment of Rs 20 for the purpose of sample.

The sample was sent for analysis. As per the report the sample was found adulterated. It was stated in the report that milk fat and total solid contents of the sample were 5.72 per cent and 26.23 per cent against the minimum prescribed standard of 10 per cent and 36 per cent.

The Magistrate observed that no leniency was desirable in such type of cases. The adulteration in such type of food article can adversely affect the health of every individual in the society. Therefore the convict is sentenced to six-month rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs 1,000. In case of default in payment, the accused will have to undergo additional one-month rigorous imprisonment.

In another case under the Food Adulteration Act, Jaspal Singh, was sentenced to six-month rigorous imprisonment today by the UT Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sant Parkash.

The Food Inspector had intercepted the accused and found about 20 litres of adulterated milk in his possession, ment for public sale, in Sector 38-D. The Inspector had purchased 750 ml of milk against the payment of Rs 6 for the purpose of analysis. The sample was sent for the purpose of analysis and was found adulterated. It was stated in the report that the milk fat was 29 per cent deficient of the minimum prescribed standard and milk solid was less by 12 per cent from the minimum prescribed standard. Therefore the accused was sentenced to six-month rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1000.

Hostel trespass

The UT Additional Sessions Judge, Mr S.K Goel, today dismissed the bail application moved by Apurav Singh, in a case of assault and house trespassing. The accused had moved the bail plea under Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The case against the accused had been registered under Sections 452, 354 of the IPC. It was alleged that the accused had entered the Laxmi Bai girls hostel, in Panjab University and had tried to assault a girl.

The Judge observed that the conduct of the accused deserved no leniency, despite the fact that he was in the judicial custody for the past so many days. Keeping in view, the heinousness of the offence and dreadful act of the accused by intruding into the room of the girl at 1.30 a.m. The accused did not deserve the concession of bail.

Police remand

The UT Judicial Magistrate (First Class), today sentenced duo Nihan Singh and Hein Singh, to police remand till March 11. The duo was arrested yesterday by the city police and 37 Kg of poppy husk was allegedly seized from their possession.