State education department firm on decision to scrap oral exams for Class 10 students

Even as the state education department’s move to scrap oral exams for languages and social science has been severely criticised, the government has refused to change their decision.

On Tuesday, a delegation of Yuva Sena- Shiv Sena’s youth wing met state education minister Vinod Tawde urging the government to bring back orals for the students.

“Not having internal marks in languages and social science will be extremely stressful for students as they would have to write a 100-mark paper. Since the board results are extremely important for a child’s future, the government should bring back the orals to make it easy for students to score well,” said Sainath Durge, Yuva Sena core team member.

However, officials from the education department said that the decision to have 100-mark papers for all subjects except Maths and Science will be implemented for class 10 students from this year.

“We won’t scrap the decision at least this year. We will see the impact of the move by looking at results of the students and then decide whether to continue it or not from the next year,” said a senior official from the state education department.

Starting this year, students from the state board would not have any orals for subjects other than Mathematics and Science and would have to attempt a 100-mark paper that will all be in written form. Children with Special Needs (CWSN) will have oral exams for social sciences in addition to Mathematics and Science.

Officials from the education department said that students won’t face any issue as model papers would be available on the education department’s Balbharti website.

HT had first reported that practice tests would be given to Class 10 students to prepare them for the new format.