The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday announced a revision of the Board exams pattern for Class 10 and 12 from 2024. The CBSE, which has the largest number of affiliated schools and examinees across the country, stated in its new guidelines that students will get more multiple choice questions, (MCQs) for the Board exams next year.
Based on the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), the move is aimed at progressively aligning assessment with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
The idea of MCQs is to reduce weightage for questions requiring short or long answers.
However, this is not the first attempt at reforming Board exams.
The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) method was introduced for Class 10 in 2009 but was revoked in 2017 and the Board reverted to the old model of year-end exams.
The Board exams for Class 10 and 12 were also split into two terms during the pandemic as a one-time measure but the old format of year-end examination was resumed for the crucial exams this year.
A CBSE official said the change, however, might be limited to the 2023-24 academic session only, as the Board exams are likely to be revised next year again with the introduction of the new NCF.
“The NEP, 2020, has affirmed the need to move from rote learning to learning more focused on developing the creative and critical thinking capacities of students to meet the challenges of the 21st century proactively.
The Board is initiating changes in the examination and assessment practices for the academic session 2023-24 to align assessment to Competency Focused Education,†said Joseph Emanuel, Director, CBSE (Academics).
“Therefore, in the forthcoming session a greater number of Competency Based Questions or questions that assess application of concepts in real-life situations will be part of the question paper,†he added.
In Class 10, 50 per cent questions will be competency-based in the form of MCQs, case-based questions, source-based integrated questions or any other type. The weightage for such questions in the last academic session was 40 per cent. The objective questions will now necessarily be MCQs with 20 per cent weightage.
The weightage for short answer and long answer type questions has been reduced to 30 per cent from 40 per cent last year.
Similarly, in Class 12, 40 per cent of the questions will be competency focused in the form of MCQs, case-cased questions, source-based integrated questions or any other type. The weightage for such questions in the last academic session was 30 per cent.
In Class 12, too, the objective questions will now necessarily be MCQs with 20 per cent weightage. The weightage for short answer and long answer type questions has been reduced to 40 per cent from 50 per cent last year.
The NCF, which is being drafted according to the NEP, also proposes doing away with the current practice of dividing streams into science, arts or humanities and commerce for Class 11 and 12.
According to Education Ministry officials, the draft which is in the final stages will be put in public domain soon for feedback from stakeholders and the new system will be implemented from the 2024 academic session. The NCF was last revised in 2005.
The NCF, which is being drafted according to the new NEP, also notes there are two major aspects that cause fear of mathematics -- the nature of the subject and how it is being taught and how it is being perceived in society.
