The State government on Monday issued orders restricting Class X board exams this year to six papers representing as many subjects against 11 papers in the past.
The students will be required to appear for only one paper per subject. However, they will have to answer in separate sheets for physics and biology in the science paper. Earlier, they used to appear for two papers each for five subjects and one paper for second language. The number of papers were brought down as the academic schedule at schools was way behind due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, the six paper norm for Class X exams was nothing new as the government had proposed it for the last academic year itself but could not implement the same because the exams were called off and students promoted straight away due to the pandemic. The same was being followed now.
Another proposal of last year that will also be implemented was reduction in syllabus for all classes from I to X by 30%. Only 70 % of the prescribed syllabus will form the gamut from which questions will be picked up.
It was decided to offer more choice to answer questions. Eighty marks will be reserved for board exams and 20 for formative assessment for Class X students. The time allotted for Class X exams was increased by half-an-hour. Students will now get three hours and 15 minutes for each exam.
A string of changes were proposed in the exam system because the academic year was restricted only to 166 days and residential schools were yet to open. The schools did not report full attendance of students even where they were reopened.
