Amidst the Pandemic, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) made changes for this batch. The rationale behind this was major uncertainty. As we have observed from the last two batches, exams getting cancelled, postponed created a lot of dilemmas and tension in a student’s mind, affecting their mental health.
With rationale to ensure that the grading system isn’t affected, CBSE came up with certain guidelines for the batch of 2021-2022.
Two board exams will be conducted, yes you heard that right. Earlier only one board exam was conducted but there will be two exams in two different parts. The syllabus will not be the whole book since it will be unnecessary pressure. Both the terms will have different syllabus, 50% each, to avoid overlapping of syllabus for the academic session of 2021- 2022.
First exam will be held in November-December while another term will be held in March-April, the marks of both of them will contribute to the overall marks of the candidate. The question papers will be sent by the board itself to the schools and as usual there will be representatives and external examiners to monitor the situation like earlier.
Also, there is a shift in pattern. The term one paper will be objective, having MCQ type questions and term two will be subjective, comprising written format answers.
However, if the covid situation remains not conducive to normal descriptive examination, 90 minute MCQ based exam will be conducted at the end of Term 2 as well, said the officials
As students, internal assessments were not considered that important, but now it has taken a different turn. There will be a student profile which will be created and weight-age will be given to the internal assessment marks. The focus on it will be more if the Covid situation isn’t improving. There will be a lot of practical work, data collection by the board.
For 11 and 12, it will include tests at the end of every topic, practicals and for 9th and 19rh standard students it will be tests periodically and practical work and activity based. IT platform will be created by the board to facilitate all this and teachers, schools will be provided with testimonials, sample assessment, training for the teachers so that they are equipped.
All these methods devised by the board will ensure students take their academics seriously, which was not the case earlier because many did not even study. Obviously earlier it created a lot of tension and uncertainty for students to study, this step will ensure that there academics and studies don’t suffer because of the COVID-19 situation.