2 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
LBA system in primary schools across Karnataka must go: Experts
BENGALURU: A growing number of teachers and educationists across Karnataka are raising serious concerns about the newly introduced Lesson-based Assessment (LBA) system in primary schools, terming it 'unscientific, burdensome, and a violation of the Right to Education Act'.
Prominent educationists have strongly opposed the policy and called for its immediate withdrawal, urging the government to reinstate the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) method instead.
According to experts, LBA requires students to appear for a test after each lesson, amounting to nearly 350–360 tests a year.
'This is not only overwhelming for students but is also severely burdening teachers, who are now forced to spend more time preparing, conducting, evaluating, and uploading data for assessments than actually teaching,' said Baraguru Ramachandrappa, noted writer and educationist. 'Teachers are not machines. The classroom must be a space for learning, not non-stop testing,' he added.
The LBA system, introduced this year by the Department of School Education and Literacy, has drawn criticism not only for increasing the workload of teachers but also for allegedly violating Section 29(2)(h) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which mandates a Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system for student assessment, according to educationists.
'LBA violates the very essence of what the RTE Act stands for,' said Niranjanaradhya VP, an educationist. 'CCE was introduced after years of discussions and is now part of law. LBA, on the other hand, forces frequent testing, leaves little time for teaching, and narrows the focus to rote memorisation.'
He added that the decision to implement LBA was taken without consulting educators, teachers, or academic experts. 'It is a unilateral move. Policies that directly affect children and teachers should go through democratic processes and expert consultation. This has not happened,' he said.
