By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education has decided to rationalise the syllabus for classes 10 and 12 for the academic session 2021-22 and announced that the board examinations for the 2021 batch will be held in two terms, covering 50 % syllabus each time.
The board, in a circular issued to all the heads of the schools affiliated under it, said that the advance planning had been done keeping in mind the Covid19 pandemic situation that forced the cancellation of the board examinations this year.
The syllabus for the session 2021-22, as per the new arrangement, will be divided into 2 terms by following a systematic approach by looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics by the subject experts and the board will conduct examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus.
Proposing different scenarios that may lie ahead, the board has proposed various options that can be opted for—either home based or school-based examination—depending on the Covid19 situation.
“This is done to increase the probability of having a board conducted classes 10 and 12 examinations at the end of the academic session,” it said.
As per the special scheme, at the end of the first term, the board will organize term examination in a flexible schedule to be conducted between November-December this year with a window period of 4-8 weeks.
It will be multiple choice questions-based paper and the exams will be conducted under the supervision of the external centre superintendents and observers appointed by CBSE.
At the end of the second term, the board has proposed to organise the year end examination in March-April next year based on the rationalized syllabus of only the second term at the examination centres fixed by the board.
In this case, the paper will be of 2 hours duration and have questions of different formats–case or situation based, open ended- short answer or long answer type.
But in case the situation is not conducive for normal descriptive examination, a 90-minute MCQ based exam will be conducted at the end of the term 2 as well.
On internal assessment, the board said, for classes 9 and 10, throughout the year-irrespective of term I and II, will include the three periodic tests, student enrichment, portfolio and practical work, speaking-listening activities and project.
For classes 11 and 12, on the other hand, internal assessment will include end of topic or unit tests and exploratory activities, practical and projects.
Proposed assessment as per different situations
A. In case the situation of the pandemic improves and students are able to come to schools or centres for taking the exams: the board will conduct Term I and Term II examinations at schools/centres and the theory marks will be distributed equally between the two exams.
B. In case the situation of the pandemic forces complete closure of schools during November-December, but Term II exams are held at schools or centres: Term I MCQ based examination will be conducted from home – in this case, the weightage of this exam for the final score would be reduced, and weightage of Term II exams will be increased for declaration of final result.
C. In case the pandemic forces complete closure of schools during March-April 2022, but Term I exams are held at schools or centres: Results will be based on the performance of students on Term I MCQ based examination and internal assessments. The weightage of marks of Term I examination conducted by the board will be increased to provide year end results of candidates.
D. In case the situation of the pandemic forces complete closure of schools and board conducted Term I and II exams are taken by the candidates from home in the session 2021-22: Results will be computed on the basis of the internal assessment, practical, project work and theory marks of Term-I and II exams taken by the candidate from home.
