In a notification dated February 27, 2018, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has written to all the schools: “The Examination Committee of the Board in its meeting held on February 16, 2018, after considering the circumstances and the facts that the current batch of Class X in 2018 is coming from a different assessment background while they were in Class IX in 2017, resolved to approve the following for this batch of Class X appearing in 2018 Board examinations as a one-time measure.”
In a notification dated February 27, 2018, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has written to all the schools: “The Examination Committee of the Board in its meeting held on February 16, 2018, after considering the circumstances and the facts that the current batch of Class X in 2018 is coming from a different assessment background while they were in Class IX in 2017, resolved to approve the following for this batch of Class X appearing in 2018 Board examinations as a one-time measure.”
The notification from Anita Karwal, Chairperson of CBSE, mentions that the current batch of Class X with five main subjects, and having 20 marks as internal assessment component and Board examination of 80 marks, may be exempted from the mandatory separate pass criteria. They need to secure overall 33 per cent (both together) and not separately, as was the case previously.
So far the pass percentage for internals was 33 per cent, i.e., a mandatory score of 7/20, and 33 per cent pass in the final (school-based) exam, i.e., a mandatory 26/80.
In another notification issued the same day by KK Choudhury, Controller of Examinations, CBSE has permitted Candidates with Special Needs (CWSN) to write Board exams using laptop/computer, starting this year. Based on a certificate from a medical practitioner recommending the use of computer, the candidate will be allowed to type out the answers. The computer/laptop should not have an Internet connection and should be duly formatted. Another concession is that a provision of a reader will be made to those candidates who do not want a scribe.
An earlier circular dated February 21, 2018, has been issued for the benefit of students with Type 1 diabetes. It says that Class X and Class XII students appearing for Board exams are permitted to carry food with them to the examination centre. The following are allowed: sugar tablets, chocolate, candy, fruits like banana, apple or orange, snacks like sandwich, and a 500 ml of water bottle.
Those wishing to avail of this concession should have a certificate from a diabetologist. The eatables will have to be in the safekeeping of the invigilators from whom the items can be requested as per need basis.
From the first week of February CBSE had started a student counselling service to address students’ exam related anxiety, especially among Board exam students. The tele-counselling service is functional till April 13 when the Class XII exams will get over. As many as 91 principals, trained counsellors, psychologists and special educators have been trained to counsel the students. They are spread over India, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Kuwait, Qatar and Japan. The counselling number is 1800118004. Though this is an old system, this year saw this being pushed for optimum exposure.
If this was not enough, there was the ‘Pariksha pe Charcha’ by none other than the Prime Minister himself, where he gave tips to students facing the Board exams about being stress-free and seeing it as a “celebration” and not a scourge.
It may be noted that all these so called concessions/exemptions/motivating sessions are being doled out to this batch as they are coming from a different assessment background (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). Though this Evaluation meant a school-based year-end exam, it did not include 100 per cent syllabus.
It is common understanding that the students have to be in a particular assessment pattern for two years to familiarise themselves with it. But this batch was not given the luxury of even one year. They followed the CCE pattern in Class IX and after moving to Class X too also followed the same pattern. Though there were rumours floating around about a Board exam, it was only in December 2017 that Mr. Choudhary formally announced the revival of the Class X Board exams and that the immediate batch would face them in March 2018 itself.
It may be recalled that the CBSE has been conducting Class X exams based on the CCE pattern since 2009. It is after eight years that the CBSE is holding a Board exam for Class X. For whatever reasons the CBSE decided to go back to the old exam pattern, the 2017-18 batch of Class X students have to bear the brunt of this decision.
By the time teachers, parents and students woke up to this harsh reality it was end of December 2017, and then began the whirlwind of activity where teachers had to cover 100 per cent of the portions in a wink, and students had to prepare for a Board exam - all in bare 60 days.
Many CBSE schools worked overtime - almost eight to nine hours to race through the portions that had to be completed within a few days in order to schedule the pre-Board exams. A preliminary revision exam for 80 marks was held in the first week of January itself, just to give the students a feel of writing a formal exam, even though the schools had not finished the portions. After this the teachers were compelled to race through the portions to give students enough time to be ready for the pre-Board in the third week of January.
Till date (March 5) it has been a flurry of exams, endless hours of revision, and extra hours where dedicated teachers had to sit with the so-called “remedial” students who fell below the pass scores.
That this batch children are guinea pigs goes without saying, all for the whims and fancies of a system, which just ups and decides that Board exams are best at the eleventh hour. But what has added to the misery is the recent announcement by the HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar that the CBSE syllabus will be cut by half from 2019.
Various representations made by principals, teachers and parents about postponing the Board exam to 2019 have fallen on deaf ears. The CBSE and Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) have introduced all these concessions as damage control measures. If the CBSE thought that all these concessions that it has doled out was going to make the students who are starting their exams tomorrow (March 6) happy, it is far from the truth. With the revision in pass criteria there is going to be a high percentage of pass, which is going to be a problem in itself. This, in turn, will pose a problem in deciding a percentage or cut-off for admission to Class XI.
The notification from Anita Karwal, Chairperson of CBSE, mentions that the current batch of Class X with five main subjects, and having 20 marks as internal assessment component and Board examination of 80 marks, may be exempted from the mandatory separate pass criteria. They need to secure overall 33 per cent (both together) and not separately, as was the case previously.
So far the pass percentage for internals was 33 per cent, i.e., a mandatory score of 7/20, and 33 per cent pass in the final (school-based) exam, i.e., a mandatory 26/80.
In another notification issued the same day by KK Choudhury, Controller of Examinations, CBSE has permitted Candidates with Special Needs (CWSN) to write Board exams using laptop/computer, starting this year. Based on a certificate from a medical practitioner recommending the use of computer, the candidate will be allowed to type out the answers. The computer/laptop should not have an Internet connection and should be duly formatted. Another concession is that a provision of a reader will be made to those candidates who do not want a scribe.
An earlier circular dated February 21, 2018, has been issued for the benefit of students with Type 1 diabetes. It says that Class X and Class XII students appearing for Board exams are permitted to carry food with them to the examination centre. The following are allowed: sugar tablets, chocolate, candy, fruits like banana, apple or orange, snacks like sandwich, and a 500 ml of water bottle.
Those wishing to avail of this concession should have a certificate from a diabetologist. The eatables will have to be in the safekeeping of the invigilators from whom the items can be requested as per need basis.
From the first week of February CBSE had started a student counselling service to address students’ exam related anxiety, especially among Board exam students. The tele-counselling service is functional till April 13 when the Class XII exams will get over. As many as 91 principals, trained counsellors, psychologists and special educators have been trained to counsel the students. They are spread over India, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Kuwait, Qatar and Japan. The counselling number is 1800118004. Though this is an old system, this year saw this being pushed for optimum exposure.
If this was not enough, there was the ‘Pariksha pe Charcha’ by none other than the Prime Minister himself, where he gave tips to students facing the Board exams about being stress-free and seeing it as a “celebration” and not a scourge.
It may be noted that all these so called concessions/exemptions/motivating sessions are being doled out to this batch as they are coming from a different assessment background (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). Though this Evaluation meant a school-based year-end exam, it did not include 100 per cent syllabus.
It is common understanding that the students have to be in a particular assessment pattern for two years to familiarise themselves with it. But this batch was not given the luxury of even one year. They followed the CCE pattern in Class IX and after moving to Class X too also followed the same pattern. Though there were rumours floating around about a Board exam, it was only in December 2017 that Mr. Choudhary formally announced the revival of the Class X Board exams and that the immediate batch would face them in March 2018 itself.
It may be recalled that the CBSE has been conducting Class X exams based on the CCE pattern since 2009. It is after eight years that the CBSE is holding a Board exam for Class X. For whatever reasons the CBSE decided to go back to the old exam pattern, the 2017-18 batch of Class X students have to bear the brunt of this decision.
By the time teachers, parents and students woke up to this harsh reality it was end of December 2017, and then began the whirlwind of activity where teachers had to cover 100 per cent of the portions in a wink, and students had to prepare for a Board exam - all in bare 60 days.
Many CBSE schools worked overtime - almost eight to nine hours to race through the portions that had to be completed within a few days in order to schedule the pre-Board exams. A preliminary revision exam for 80 marks was held in the first week of January itself, just to give the students a feel of writing a formal exam, even though the schools had not finished the portions. After this the teachers were compelled to race through the portions to give students enough time to be ready for the pre-Board in the third week of January.
Till date (March 5) it has been a flurry of exams, endless hours of revision, and extra hours where dedicated teachers had to sit with the so-called “remedial” students who fell below the pass scores.
That this batch children are guinea pigs goes without saying, all for the whims and fancies of a system, which just ups and decides that Board exams are best at the eleventh hour. But what has added to the misery is the recent announcement by the HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar that the CBSE syllabus will be cut by half from 2019.
Various representations made by principals, teachers and parents about postponing the Board exam to 2019 have fallen on deaf ears. The CBSE and Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) have introduced all these concessions as damage control measures. If the CBSE thought that all these concessions that it has doled out was going to make the students who are starting their exams tomorrow (March 6) happy, it is far from the truth. With the revision in pass criteria there is going to be a high percentage of pass, which is going to be a problem in itself. This, in turn, will pose a problem in deciding a percentage or cut-off for admission to Class XI.