No child in pre-school should be made to give any written or oral exam, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has said, terming it as a harmful and undesirable practice resulting from misguided parental aspiration. According to the Council which is the HRD Ministry’s curriculum developing body, the purpose of evaluation at the pre-school stage is not to label a child as “pass” or “fail”.
“Currently we have in the country, pre-school programmes ranging from those that put children to a dull and monotonous routine to those where children are exposed to structured formal learning, often in English, made to do tests and homework, and denied their right to play.
These are undesirable further and harmful practice that results from misguided parental aspiration,” a senior NCERT official said. The NCERT has listed do’s and dont’s on how assessment should be carried out and reported in pre-schools as part of its “guidelines for pre-school education”.