All city schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have begun the process of finding out how many of their class X students want to take the Board examination this year.
While talk of the “optional Board examinations” started earlier, the process picked up this academic year, and has gained pace after the meeting that school heads and parents had with the Board's chairman Vineet Joshi in the city recently.
The general understanding is that students who have decided to continue their Plus-Two in the CBSE stream would be taking the Summative Assessment 2 (SA2) conducted by the school, and those considering switching to another Board would be taking the Board-conducted SA2. The SA2 would carry a weightage of 40 per cent.
However, the final mark sheets given by the Board to students will not indicate which of the SA2 examinations that student took, according to C. Satish, Senior Principal, R.M.K. Group of Schools, who participated in the meeting with the chairman.
In Tamil Nadu, where admissions to professional colleges is based on scores obtained in Class XII, parents might not be able to easily take a decision on whether their child should continue in the CBSE stream, or be shifted to the State Board, says Subala Ananthanarayanan, principal, Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School.
Some parents might want to wait till the consolidated grades are out and then decide.
While the answer sheets of students appearing for the school-conducted SA2 would be evaluated by the school teachers, those of students taking the Board-conducted SA2 would be evaluated by an external examiner. “We have had meetings with parents and we have assured them that the grading of the school-conducted SA2 will be done carefully. We are waiting for their feedback,” Ms. Ananthanarayanan said.
Class XI admission
During his meeting with school heads, the CBSE chairman underscored the point that no school shall base students' admissions to class XI on cut-off marks.
In fact, in 2007, the Madras High Court ruled that Class XI should be treated as a continuation of the original admission done by the school and that no admission tests should be conducted by schools for their own students.
It also directed all CBSE schools in Tamil Nadu to display on the notice board details such as the number of seats available in Class XI, applications received, selection procedure and the merit list of candidates.
Most schools have also held meetings with parents to discuss the issue and clarify doubts. G. Neelakantan, principal, Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya Senior School, said “We are going absolutely by the circular. Children of our school will be given priority in admission. Subject to vacancies, admissions will be opened up for children of other schools.”
The school also asked how many of the parents were sure of sending their wards to class XI in the same institution.
“I needed to know the number, so that we have enough sections and teachers. Depending on the response from parents, we will work out a plan,” he said. Of the nearly 110 students studying in class X, over 60 have opted for the school-conducted SA2 so far.
Mr. Satish said over 90 per cent of his students had opted for the SA2 conducted by the school.
Keeping options open
Some students might want to keep more options open. What about those students who take the SA2 conducted by the Board and later wish to seek admission in the CBSE stream again?
According to a parent of a student going to a CBSE school in South Chennai, a circular has been sent through his daughter, asking for one of the two options. “The understanding is that if we want to opt for the Board examination, we have to leave the stream. We might put our daughter in a different CBSE school or shift her to a State Board school,” he said.
Mr. Satish said that if CBSE schools had vacancies after accommodating their own students who took the school's SA2 examination, nothing could prevent them from admitting students who took the Board's SA2 from the same school or another school.
If the grade certificate bears no indication of whether a student took the Board or the school-conducted examination, it should not matter to schools of other Boards considering these students for admission to their Plus Two sections, according to school heads.
Some parents such as Radhika Mahesh are quite clear that their child would be shifting to the State Board. “I personally feel that she will find the State Board easier, so she is taking the Board's SA2 and moving out.”
Her daughter Shramatha Mahesh says she found the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) challenging to cope with. But many of her friends are unsure how to make this decision.
Keywords: CBSE, board exams, grading system, optional board exams
You need not have any doubt in your mind. You are eligible for admission to your own school as well in other schools. You can claim admission in your school as a matter of right. The schools are expected to follow the procedure of admitting their own students first before admitting students from other schools
I want to know that if I opt for exams conducted by the board, shall I admission in my own school and also in another CBSE schools?
I hope the schools discriminating their students at the time of admission would not adopt such measures in future as the chairman has stated the rules regarding admission. Admission should be given to their own students to the group of their choice if vaccancy is available and then other school students request for admission should be considered. The Board shouold act against such schools if complaint is recieved
Only one exam should be authorised by the CBSE and that should conducted by the school. The schools should be given the full autonomy even to set its own question papers for class 1x and x and need not be approved by the board. They should have faith in the schools and such privilege should be given to the principals and teachers of schools having credibility.
So many concerns and the board is sitting like emperor NERO.This board is playing with children's future. Nobody is clear, if the child appears for board exam and then continue in the same school without having to seek favours from the school management. Nobody understands why two types of exams!! What these TUGLAQ like thinking will do is that it will give more powers to local schools and breed corruption.
The CBSE board has to clarify that whether the students opting for School conducted exam is eligible for changing his/her board viz.,the state board or the ICSE. There is a utter confusion on this because in some Senior Secondary schools the students have been asked to take up only school conducted exams. This leaves the parents with a doubt about whether the changing of board will be allowed or not.
The reforms introduced by the Board leave too many questions unanswered:- 1) When the CCE certificate doesn't indicate whether the candidate has appeared in board conducted SA2 or the internal SA2, why should there be a separate exam at all?
2) A sample of the CCE certificate displayed on the CBSE website mentions that a student who scores more than '30' in co-scholastic areas will be entitled to upscaling of Grades in 2 subjects. But the Board hasn't instructed the school authorities how to go about it.
3) As past experience shows, schools do tend to be very generous in awarding marks for practicals, projects and assignments. Under the present system, every subject teacher can award as many as 40 marks as per his discretion. These marks will be awarded arbitrarily by the teachers to enhance their reputation and that of the school. The board, woefully understaffed as it is, will do nothing to check this. In the long run, this will dilute the value of CCE Grades. And the ensuing criticism could lead to a reversion to the old system.
It is not clearly explained that students who appear for board exam will get marks from board or at school level. Is there a diffrence in marking scheme or question paper or not?Is there a diffrence in syllabus for the board exam and school level exam?
What is the stand of TN govt. for admission to state school. Is there any circular saying that, state won't admit CBSE class X students who took "school conducted" SA-II. ( After all 60% of the mark is based on school conducted exam anyway for all students.). If not why CBSE board is creating trouble for students by asking for options? Why not ask everyone to take exam same way.
It is not very clear whether a student who has already opted to write the Board conducted Exam in March,2011,will necessarily have to change from the CBSE stream; if it is not possible to get admitted to the same school for cl xi in CBSE stream;if the marks sheets given by the Bd will NOT indicate which exam has been taken by the student in std x,(school or Bd)why at all shd there be this dichotemy of asking the student to change the school or stream?ie shift from CBSE to State Bd or require the student to shift from the present school to another.There cud certainly be cases of students opting to take the Board conducted exam, even while wanting to continue in the same School and NOT wanting to change from CBSE to State Bd; a case in point is that of my grand daughter studying in an autonomous school in Bangalore.
When the word 'option' is used, it should mean that even if the student appears for the Board Exam, he should have the option to either continue in the same school or go to another CBSE school or change the Board for XII exam. One of my concerns, as a parent is that with the online admissions for State Boards, taking unduly long time, it will again fall on the parents to keep their children engaged, by admitting in private tutorial classes or other classes, so that the time between March and August is utilised for the preparation of entrance exams. Not to mention the additional financial burden to admit children elsewhere for entrance exams. I would also like to take this opportunity to tell that the CCE pattern also adds to the spending on stationery and other items on daily basis for preparation of different projects.
this information is not enough. give more information about this.
Readers might find the following useful.
http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~sharat/misc/kviitb/newCCE/boardExams.html
it's a good procees to know the capability of the students but it's a colossal task. u can't decide only upon the base of grades that this student is capable to read further in this board or shifted in another one.... so if we take the imitation of the world's school . it will be helpful for us.....
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