CBSE to list class X exam rules today

Amid growing concerns about the credibility of school-conducted Class X exams, the CBSE will issue strict guidelines to schools on the issue of conducting the final examinations to be held in March this year. Charu Sudan Kasturi reports.

Amid growing concerns about the credibility of school-conducted Class X exams, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will issue strict guidelines to schools on the issue of conducting the final examinations to be held in March this year.

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In the absence of a uniform procedure, the board is expected to come up with the new rules on Tuesday.

"The guidelines will lay down how the summative assessment for the class X students must be carried out by schools," CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi told Hindustan Times.

The summative assessment in March represents the final leg of the assessment of the students.

Schools will, however, continue to have the freedom to formulate their own question papers, use CBSE question papers or mix and match, as they were allowed to do in the September 2010 summative assessment, Joshi said.

For the first time from this year, Class X students will have the option of appearing either for the CBSE-conducted board examination or final class X test conducted by their school.

A majority of CBSE students have opted for the school-conducted tests, board sources said. Several top CBSE-affiliated schools in the capital do not have even a single student who has opted for the board-conducted test.

But the reform - pushed through by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal after years of dithering by predecessors - to make the class X Board examination optional has spawned concerns over the credibility of school-conducted tests.