The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will hold its first term board examination for major subjects for Class 12 students from December 1 to 22. For Class 10 students, the major subject examinations will begin on November 30 and run till December 11.
In a format change spurred by the uncertainty of the COVID-19 situation, CBSE had divided the 2021-22 academic year into two terms with 50% of the syllabus to be covered in each term and board exams to be held at the end of each term. This first term examination will be a 90-minute paper with multiple choice questions only.
Keeping in mind the comfort of students during the pandemic and in order to reduce their travel distances, a large number of schools will be fixed as self-centres, meaning that students will write their examinations in their own schools, CBSE Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj told journalists after the datesheet was released. For other students, the CBSE will ensure that they are not forced to travel too far from their home schools. External observers will be assigned to all centres to ensure that the examination is conducted “safely, fairly and without any untoward incidents”, he added.
These are the arrangements being made for 19 major subjects in Class 12 and nine major subjects in Class 10 which are offered by a majority of schools. For the 95 minor subjects offered in Class 12 and 66 minor subjects offered in Class 10, exams will be conducted by schools themselves, although question papers will be provided by the board. Date sheets will be sent directly to schools, and minor subject exams will begin from November 16 for Class 12 and November 17 for Class 10.
This is the first board examinations being conducted by the CBSE since March 2020, when schools were shut due to the initial onset of COVID-19, and exams cancelled midway through the schedule. The 2020-21 exams were entirely cancelled due to the second wave of the pandemic, and results declared on the basis of previous exams and internal assessments.
This year, if there are no further interruptions caused by the pandemic, a second term board examination will be held in March-April 2022, with a three-hour long subjective and objective type question paper. Final scores will be based on marks from both exams. Internal assessment marks are also being uploaded in real time onto each student’s profile being maintained by the CBSE so that they can also be used if needed.
