CBSE defends date sheet amid outcry, says schedule decided keeping many factors in mind - Hindustan Times
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CBSE defends date sheet amid outcry, says schedule decided keeping many factors in mind

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Jan 11, 2018 11:42 PM IST

CBSE says cross-stream subject selection is one reason why students are facing difficulty of reduced gap days. Also, Board explains, it has tried to end examinations in time for students to prepare for competitive tests.

Officials of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday said the schedule for Class 12 board examinations was decided after taking a number of factors, including competitive exams, into consideration after enraged students, parents and teachers called for changes in the date sheet.

File photo of Class 12 students before a CBSE exam in Moradabad. for 2018, the Board has scheduled three exams without a break from April 5 to 7 for students of the humanities stream.(PTI)
File photo of Class 12 students before a CBSE exam in Moradabad. for 2018, the Board has scheduled three exams without a break from April 5 to 7 for students of the humanities stream.(PTI)

The board has scheduled the history exam on March 20 followed by mathematics on March 21, raising concerns that preparations could get severely affected and cause stress with no break in between.

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The coveted Joint Entrance Examination or JEE — for entrance to technical institutions — is scheduled for April 8, a day before the physical education exam.

Three exams have been scheduled without a break from April 5 to 7 for students of the humanities stream — psychology on April 5, political science on April 6 and legal studies on April 7. The physical education examination has been scheduled for April 9 after the gap of a day.

Officials said some papers do not have any gap as under the present system students opt for subjects from different streams for the board exams and it was not possible to keep the exams apart.

“There are around 200 subjects out of which students can have any combination. Students have such subject combination that science students take up one from the humanities and commerce subjects and vice-versa. So, no matter how much we try some subjects might not get as many gap days as others,” an official said.

Another official said schedulers made the date sheet in a way so that all the 200 subjects were covered by the first week of April as competitive exams such as the JEE start after that.

“We start in the first week of March and end by the first week of April. Students also want to get free early to focus on competitive exams. There could be some subject combinations where there is not much gap but the board also has so many other considerations while making the date sheet,” the official said.

The principal of Delhi’s Ahlcon International School, Ashok Pandey, raised concerns over the date sheet, saying students need to relax between one exam and the other.

“We need at least the gap of one day for revision, relaxation, and breaking from one subject to another. Personally, I think two days should be the minimum break, but at least one is necessary,” he said.

Saumya Gupta, a Class 12 humanities student at Queen Mary School in Delhi’s Model Town, argued that “the date sheet is not balanced as for some papers there is too much gap and for some there is none.”

“Don’t play with the career of Humanities students! CBSE give gap please! Humanities students, 4 papers in 5 days. Disheartening as all the major papers are subjective 7 lengthy! (sic),” Sanjeev Saxena wrote on Twitter.

Science students also raised concerns over only a day’s gap for physics exam March 7 after English on March 5. Parents pointed out that mathematics and computer science exams have been scheduled on March 21 and March 23, respectively.

They said students appearing for both the subjects will not get enough time for revision and preparation.

The Class 12 exams will end on April 12 and Class 10 on April 4. The entire exercise will be completed in 38 days that will give more time for evaluation, a CBSE official said.

Nearly 11.86 lakh students are scheduled to appear for the Class 12 exam.

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