CBSE to return to one board exam pattern

The board last year announced two sets of board exams for students currently in classes 10 and 12 in order to prepare for any “unprecedented situation” that could have arisen because of the Covid-19 pandemic

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to switch to its previous practice of conducting board exams for classes 10 and 12 only once a year from the academic year 2022-23 onwards, according to people familiar with the matter.

The decision also comes at a time when school-leaving board exams will no longer be factored in for admissions to all central and several state universities. (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

The board last year announced two sets of board exams for students currently in classes 10 and 12 in order to prepare for any “unprecedented situation” that could have arisen because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first set of exams were held in an objective multiple-choice format between November and December 2021, and the second set of exams are scheduled from April 26, 2022 as subjective or long-answer papers.

There was speculations that the board would continue the two-term exam practice in future as well since the move was recommended in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

However, a senior official at CBSE, who asked not to be named, said, “The board decided to conduct two term exams for the session 2021-22 in order to avert any unprecedented situation caused by the pandemic. Even as the NEP 2020 favours two-term exams, it has been decided to switch to the previous practice for now and conduct one set of board exams at the end of the academic year. The stakeholders also suggested one exam policy .”

It means, for those who have are now entering classes 10 and 12 only one set of board exams will be conducted at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

The decision also comes at a time when school-leaving board exams will no longer be factored in for admissions to all central and several state universities. A centrally conducted admission test (Common University Entrance Test, or CUET) score will determine admissions from this year -- a move that may diminish the importance of the board exams.

Principals and students of CBSE-affiliated schools welcomed the decision.

“Examination is a big exercise not only for students, but also for schools, and teachers. Conducting two sets of examinations is very challenging as Schools have to stop all other activities at the time of board examination. It is a big relief that the CBSE is going back to the previous exercise of the end-term examination now,” said Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini.

Shambhavi Singh, a class 12 student at Delhi government School in Kalkaji, said, “Giving two-set of board exams will become really difficult at a time when CUET has been introduced for college admissions. We can’t just keep on giving exams. Now we will be able to focus on only one set of exams and the college entrance exam.”

Meanwhile, for the 2021-22 batch, the board is yet to decide the weightage to be given to the term 1 and term 2 exams.“The board has received a large number of representations from schools requesting that more weightage be given to the second term exams. It is examining the representations to make a decision regarding the weightage,” the CBSE official cited above said.