CBSE schools in Gautam Budh Nagar gear up to hold Term-1 board exams this year

According to the circular issued by the CBSE, the 90-minute Term-1 examination will have objective type questions

School authorities in Gautam Budh Nagar are gearing up to prepare students for the new pattern of the examinations after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday released its date sheet for the first-term board examinations for classes 10 and 12, officials said on Tuesday. The CBSE will be holding offline examinations for the first time, ever since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

The first term for Class 10 board examination will be conducted from November 30 to December 11, 2021, on the major subjects. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

According to the circular issued by the CBSE, the 90-minute Term-1 examination will have objective type questions, and Term-2 examination -- scheduled to take place between March and April -- is likely to have subjective or objective type questions. This will be decided according to the pandemic situation in the country at that time, said the officials.

The first term for Class 10 board examination will be conducted from November 30 to December 11, 2021, on the major subjects. The examination on the major subjects for Class 12 will be held from December 1 to December 22.

“There are a total of 148 CBSE-affiliated intermediate schools in Gautam Budh Nagar, with nearly 40,000 students in classes 10 and 12, according to the official data,” said Dharamveer Singh, district inspector of schools, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Renu Singh, principal of Amity International School in Noida, who is also the Noida coordinator of CBSE, said, “Unlike board examinations in the earlier format, when question papers were collected from CBSE’s designated centres, password-protected encrypted question papers will be sent to schools online this year. Schools will get half an hour (30 minutes) after entering the passwords, and they will have to print the question papers within this time period. For this, schools have to be well-equipped, and there will be a greater number of examination centres this year.”

As the CBSE has already shared the sample papers for Term-1 board examinations, schools have been conducting mock tests to prepare students for the new pattern. “This time, we have objective type questions which require thorough understanding on topics. It is a huge shift for the students from the earlier pattern of board examinations. We have been conducting mock tests and practical examinations offline, so that the students understand the new pattern well,” said Kamini Bhasin, principal of Delhi Public School (DPS) in Noida.

Seema Kaur, principal of Pacific World School (PWS) in Greater Noida West said that the students are preparing themselves for the examinations through resources such as sample papers, worksheets and periodic assessments. “After attending online classes and giving online examinations for over a year now, the students need to be ready to face offline examinations for Term-1 board examinations. To ensure this, we have been holding offline practice tests at the school, in accordance with guidelines issued by the CBSE,” she said.

Aditi Basu Roy, principal of Grads International School (GIS) in Greater Noida and president of All India Principals’ Association (Gautam Budh Nagar chapter), said that holding Class 10 examinations before Class 12 examinations will ensure that all the issues with the new pattern are resolved by the schools and the CBSE itself. “According to the examination schedules, Class 10 examinations will be conducted before Class 12 examinations. This is a strategic decision by the CBSE which will help the schools as well as the Board to resolve issues which may come during the Class 10 examinations, so that Class 12 examinations could be conducted smoothly. The CBSE will put observers at each centre, and encrypted question papers will be sent to the schools for the examinations,” she said.

Meanwhile, Manoj Kataria, president of Parents’ Welfare Society in Gautam Budh Nagar, said that parents are also confident enough to send their children to schools for offline examinations. “With almost negligible numbers of Covid-19 cases daily, at present, parents are confident about sending their children for offline board examinations. Moreover, students will be able to maintain social distancing as there will be a greater number of examination centres, and the strength of students will be manageable. In addition, with over one and a half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, students of classes 10 and 12 are old enough to understand and obey Covid-appropriate behaviour,” he said.