The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) is planning to bring into operation the Continuous Assessment System (CAS) and Liberal Promotion Policy (LPP), whereby students of basic primary level (grade I to III) would be promoted without having to take strenuous examinations. More importantly, it is believed that the new system would aid the government’s ambitious plan to increase the enrolment rate at grade I to 100 per cent by 2015 and would be effective in checking the dropout rate as well. This is a promising innovation in an education system dominated for years by one-time test theory.

However, for a system like CAS to be successful, it is imperative that the authorities concerned focussed on, firstly, leaving no space for widespread malpractices like favouritism and nepotism allegedly resorted to by the teachers, especially in the public schools. Thus only a fair and transparent grading system can make CAS a truly practical and beneficial scheme. Also, there lies a greater responsibility for the school administration to implement the new project because CAS is a continuous process that requires additional infrastructure and quality manpower. In a country where majority of the primary teachers are merely SLC passouts, it is important to stress for quality staff hired on the basis of right qualification and proper aptitude. Although a totally fullproof mechanism is difficult to bring into operation in a short time, the school authorities will nonetheless have to see to it that justice is done to each pupil.