Most states tick CBSE multiple choice option
NEW DELHI: Most states on Tuesday told the Union education ministry that the Central Board for Secondary Education’s (CBSE) Class 12 examinations should be conducted, picking a proposed method that involves a shorter duration for the tests, holding them at schools where students are enrolled, and switching to only multiple choice and short-answer questions.
A high-level meeting called by the Union ministry of education on Sunday to discuss the feasibility of conducting the exams remained inconclusive, even as officials said there was “broad consensus” that the test must be held for a limited number of subjects and with a shorter duration after the Covid-19 situation comes under control.
On Tuesday, only Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal opposed holding the examinations immediately, saying they should be conducted only after all teachers and students are vaccinated -- a difficult plan not just because of the current shortage of vaccines but also because many Class 12 students are under the age of 18 years, a segment for which there are currently no approved vaccines in the country.
The decision will apply not just to CBSE but likely to other boards as well, which will follow the model adopted by the country’s largest board.
During Sunday’s meeting, two options were presented to the states – first, a three-hour examination for 19 major subjects; second, 90-minute tests, with students having to appear only in one language and three elective subjects.
At least a dozen states said on Tuesday that they preferred the second option to conduct the exams. Among them were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Delhi and Punjab also preferred the second option, but said the exams should be conducted only after all teachers and students were vaccinated.
There were, however, differences on when the examinations should be held. Some flood- and extreme rainfallprone states such as Bihar, Assam and Uttarakhand said they wanted the examinations to be held after the monsoon season, which typically ends by September.
: Punjab school education minister Vijay Inder Singla on Tuesday said the central government should provide required Covid vaccines to all states before taking a decision on CBSE’s Class 12 examinations.
Conveying the state government’s feedback to the Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Singla said there is a dire need of vaccinating the students appearing in the board examinations and teachers as their health, safety is of utmost importance.
The school education minister said the examinations of only selected and essential subjects may be held in each discipline and question papers may be of lesser duration. “Due consideration may also be given to preboard examinations and internal assessment,” he wrote in a letter to the Union minister.
Raising the concerns of students and parents, Singla said the examinations should not be conducted until the safety of all stakeholders is ensured. “As there is every possibility that the students appearing in class 12 would be late in getting admission in the higher educational institutions, the Union government should issue directions to all universities and colleges to cope with the time loss of students,” he said.
Singla said the higher education institutions should be asked to reduce the syllabi of the courses which would also reduce the mental pressure on students. “The students taking admissions in the higher education institutions after undergoing class 12 examinations would not be required to undergo all the semesters in the next course. For example, 8 semesters course may be reduced to 7 semesters which would help in reducing mental pressure on students,” he said.
Due consideration may also be given to pre-board exams and internal assessment. Exams of only essential subjects may be held in each discipline.
VIJAY INDER SINGLA, Punjab school education minister to central govt
J&K students demand cancellation of offline exams
As the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) mulls to conduct board exams of Class 12 across India, more than 6000 students from Jammu Kashmir say that they are completely unprepared despite long delays in the examination.
“The education system in Jammu Kashmir is literally defunct since August 2019 when the central government imposed a physical as well as an internet curfew after it abrogated article 370. I was promoted to 12th standard in the beginning of 2020. However, till this year’s February there was no 4G internet available here. We could not even attend any online classes like the rest of Indian students,” said Baiza Bashir, a class 12th CBSE student from Kashmir.
While most of the schools in the Union Territory follow the exam calendar of Jammu Kashmir board of school education which has already conducted the exams of class 12th in Kashmir, only a few schools here fall under the CBSE.
This too has contributed to a stress among students as they complain that in absence of the high-speed internet for more than a year, there was not much of the CBSE study material or coaching available for them in J&K.
“Firstly, it was very cumbersome to even download the different apps for the online classes. On 2G network, even the zoom classes would buffer so much that hardly anything could be heard leave alone copying notes from the screen” says Janifer Salati another 12th class CBSE student.
Salati adds that if we talk about the preparations considering how the previous batches of students were prepared, there have been no such things as mock tests or any other monthly evaluative exams
“We definitely didn’t attempt any exam on CBSE pattern and now if the CBSE is expecting us to outperform in this exam, it would be totally unfair” adds Salati.