ABSTRACT
Assessment-related debates have witnessed contesting deliberations over the past few years. The public and political perception regarding the non-detention provision in RTE 2009 turned negative, emerging both out of genuine concerns and negative reporting in the media and an interpretation of these reforms especially offered by assessment agencies conducting learning surveys. A part of the chapter carries an interview with the eminent educationist Krishna Kumar explaining how the examination system tries to provide a legitimate veneer of fairness to the participation of children from different social backgrounds in a supposedly objective certification process under common conditions, irrespective of the social or educational background they come from. The interview speaks of this supposed fairness as something that can be read as silence in the face of the deep inequalities that prevail in the broader structure of our school education system.
