PremiumThe Covid-19 pandemic led to the disruption of regular classes and exams of the previous and current academic year. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was forced to cancel the crucial class 10 and 12 exams, which led to much anxiety about the students' assessment criteria and results.
In view of this, the board has formulated parameters it will use to declare the results of the 2020-21 batch and announced the same earlier last month. Following this, several other measures were also set forth to ensure a seamless and transparent process of assessment.
Here are the latest developments in the process:
Surprise checks on schools
The CBSE has directed its regional officials across the country to visit the affiliated schools preparing classes 10 and 12 results in order to inspect their work.
The new criteria for the declaration of results entrust the schools to do the bulk of the assessment work based on internal assessment, practical and project work.
The CBSE said officials visiting the schools shall also sign on documents inspected especially the score rationalization documents. A complete report along with the soft copy of the documents will be sent to the controller of examination by 12 July.
Automation software
The board said it will deploy software to partly automate the class 12 board exam evaluation process and aid schools in the tabulation of marks.
Through the new system, the class 10 CBSE board marks will be automatically taken from the system by the software. The board is exploring the use of class 10 board data of other schools' boards from where some students generally migrate to CBSE after class 10. This will potentially reduce human error.
Schools will have to give theory marks for only those students, who passed class 10 from other boards. CBSE has also directed that schools should keep these marks in soft copy format.
Details of students
The CBSE has asked schools to upload seven key details about their students for its automation software.
The board said that schools need to upload the internal grades of each of the students along with practical/projects/internal assessment marks.
Schools also need to upload class 10 roll number, name of the school board and year of passing to verification, and furnish “availability of historical performance of schools to be taken as reference for moderation."
Besides, the class 11 theory marks datasheet and Class 12 theory marks datasheet need to be uploaded in a dedicated portal developed by the CBSE.
Physical exams
For students dissatisfied with CBSE's assessment criteria, physical exams may be conducted in August, if the Covid-19 cases continue to show a downward trend.
Calculation of class 10,12 marks sans exams
CBSE has announced that for class 10, the authorities will include 40% marks from pre-board examinations, 30% marks from half-yearly or mid-term examinations, 20% from an internal assessment carried out by schools and 10% from periodic or unit tests.
For class 12, it has said that about 40% of the marks will be based on the pre-board examinations or unit tests, while class 10 and 11 will each amount to 30% of the marks.
The board will be adopting a 30:30:40 formula to evaluate class 12 students based on the results of class 10, 11 and 12 examinations, respectively.
The result for class 12 will be announced by 31 July and that of class 10 will be declared by 20 July.
Two board exams
The CBSE has said that under the assessment scheme for the 2022 batch, academic sessions will be divided into two terms.
The first-term exams to be held in November-December and second term examinations will be scheduled in March-April.
"This has been done to increase the probability of having a board conducted classes 10 and 12 examinations at the end of the academic session," Joseph Emmanuel, director (academic), CBSE said.
Exam pattern in such case
CBSE Term 1 will mostly involve Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) including case-based MCQs and MCQs on the assertion-reasoning type. The exam will for 90 minutes each and cover only 50 per cent of the entire syllabus.
The Term 2 or year-end examinations will be based on the rationalised syllabus of the second term i.e., 50 per cent of the entire syllabus. This term exams will be held around March-April 2022 at examination centres fixed by the board.
Exams from home
The CBSE may allow class 10 and 12 students to take their board exams from home in 2021-22 if the Covid-19 situation deteriorates in the coming months.
The board has indicated that cancellation of exams is not a solution, going forward and instead of cancelling, home-based online or offline exams will be put in place if the country faces a third wave of pandemic in the ongoing academic session.
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