This year’s CBSE Class X board exams, the results of which were announced on Saturday, will be the last one to test only one semester’s syllabus. From next year, the CBSE will move back to testing the entire school year’s syllabus in the board exams, and do away with the system of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) introduced in 2009-10.
The CCE was intended at reducing the emphasis on the board exams by focusing on other school-based assessment, including mid-term tests, school projects, and extracurricular activities. In the new system, the board exams will have a weightage of 80%, with 20% of the assessment done in school.
Students who had appeared for the board exams this year said one of the best things about the system was that it tested just one term’s syllabus. “I think doing the full portion would be very difficult. It might be okay for maths, but for science and social science, it wouldn’t be easy. It would involve 25 chapters instead of 12, which are already dense enough,” said Neer Savla, from SKKE school.
“I think from the students’ point of view, having to study more would add pressure,” said Isha Phadnis from DAV School, Thane. The other benefit of one-semester syllabus was that the board exams then seemed like any other test, relieving the pressure on students.
The teaching system will have to be modified to equip students for the change, said Deepshika Srivastava, principal of Rajhans Vidyalaya. “Children might find it difficult. Extra efforts are now needed to prepare them. We will have to build the exams up slowly, organising one round, maybe two rounds of preliminary exams before the boards with the full syllabus,” she said.
This will reduce the emphasis on extracurricular activities and reports that students had grown accustomed to scoring in.
Others, though, view this move as bringing seriousness back to students’ education. “I think the lack of exclusive focus on the board exams made students lose their focus on academics,” said Beena Thambi, principal, Mahatma School, New Panvel. “We are also seeing marks go up so much —up to 99.6%, and 100 in individual subjects. The new system might tighten the marking system, and bring order back into it. Students would take academics more seriously as well.”
