The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday announced a special assessment scheme for the current academic session. The Class X and XII board exams will be split into two terms in the 2021-22 academic session. However, this scheme, according to a senior CBSE official, will be continued beyond the pandemic period as well.
The first term questions will be objective, which will take place in November-December 2021, while the second term exams will be subjective which will happen in March-April 2022.
Moreover, there will be no overlapping of syllabus in both these terms.
The final results will be declared on the basis of the performances of both these exams and equal weightage will be given to both the term exams.
As per the CBSE’s guidelines, at the end of the first term, the board will organize Term I examination in a flexible schedule to be conducted between November-December 2021 with a window period of four to eight weeks for schools situated in different parts of country and abroad.
The question paper will have Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) of 90-minute duration and during the pandemic period, it will cover only the rationalized syllabus of Term I.
At the end of the second term, the board would conduect Term II or year-end examination based on the rationalized syllabus.
The paper will be of 120-minute duration and will have subjective questions of different formats.
The responses of students will be captured on OMR sheets which, after scanning, may be directly uploaded at the CBSE portal. Alternatively, the sheets may be evaluated and marks obtained will be uploaded by the school on the very same day.
“Students will study only the specific syllabus meant for that particular term-end exam. No part of the first-term syllabus will be part of the second-term exam and vice-versa,” said the CBSE official.
As a learning from the Covid-19 situation, CBSE is also looking at keeping options of online exams as an exigency measure.
“Due to the pandemic, exams are getting postponed and cancelled. So, the online exam is one model which is also being planned,” said the official.
For the pandemic period, the Board has decided that in case the situation of the pandemic improves and students are able to come to schools or centres for taking the exams, exams will be conducted at schools/centres and the theory marks will be distributed equally between the two exams.
However, if schools remain closed in the November-December period but Term II exams are conducted in schools then Term I would be done by students online/offline from home and the weightage of this exam for the final score would be reduced while the weightage of Term II exams will be increased for declaration of final result. In a vice-versa scenario, the same rules will apply.
But in case of complete closure of schools for both the exams, results would 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 in Class X/XII.
“When the situation normalise, the Board will revert to its original schedule and conduct the Term I exam in October-November and Term II in February-March and for the full syllabus,” said the official.
Here’s What the board said in it’s official release:
- Special Scheme for 2021-22
A. Academic session to be divided into 2 Terms with approximately 50% syllabus in each term:
The syllabus for the Academic session 2021-22 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.
This is done to increase the probability of having a Board conducted classes X and XII examinations at the end of the academic session 2021.
B. The syllabus for the Board examination 2021-22 will be rationalized similar to that of the last academic session to be notified in July 2021. For academic transactions, however, schools will follow the curriculum and syllabus released by the Board vide Circular no. F.1001/CBSE-Acad/Curriculum/2021 dated 31 March 2021. Schools will also use alternative academic calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum.
C. Efforts will be made to make Internal Assessment/ Practical/ Project work more credible and valid as per the guidelines and Moderation Policy to be announced by the Board to ensure fair distribution of marks.
2. Details of Curriculum Transaction
- Schools will continue teaching in distance mode till the authorities permit in-person mode of teaching in schools.
- Classes IX-X: Internal Assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) would include the 3 periodic tests, student enrichment, portfolio and practical work/ speaking listening activities/ projects.
- Classes XI-XII: Internal Assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) would include end of topic or unit tests/ exploratory activities/ practicals/ projects.
- Schools would create a student profile for all assessments undertaken over the year and retain the evidence in digital format.
- CBSE will facilitate schools to upload marks of Internal Assessment on the CBSE IT platform.
- Guidelines for Internal Assessment for all subjects will also be released along with the rationalized term wise divided syllabus for the session 2021-22.The board would also provide additional resources like sample assessments, question banks, teacher training etc. for more reliable and valid internal assessments.
3. Term I Examinations:
- At the end of the first term, the Board will organize Term I Examination in a flexible schedule to be conducted between November-December 2021 with a window period of 4-8 weeks for schools situated in different parts of the country and abroad. Dates for conduct of examinations will be notified subsequently.
- The Question Paper will have Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) including case-based MCQs and MCQs on assertion-reasoning type. Duration of test will be 90 minutes and it will cover only the rationalized syllabus of Term I only (i.e. approx. 50% of the entire syllabus).
- Question Papers will be sent by the CBSE to schools along with a marking scheme.
- The exams will be conducted under the supervision of the External Center Superintendents and Observers appointed by CBSE.
- The responses of students will be captured on OMR sheets which, after scanning may be directly uploaded at CBSE portal or alternatively may be evaluated and marks obtained will be uploaded by the school on the very same day. The final direction in this regard will be conveyed to schools by the Examination Unit of the Board.
- Marks of the Term I Examination will contribute to the final overall score of students.
4. Term II Examination/ Year-end Examination:
- At the end of the second term, the Board would organize Term II or Year-end Examination based on the rationalized syllabus of Term II only (i.e. approximately 50% of the entire syllabus).
- This examination would be held around March-April 2022 at the examination centres fixed by the Board.
- The paper will be of 2 hours duration and have questions of different formats (case-based/ situation based, open ended- short answer/ long answer type).
- 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 II also.
- Marks of the Term II Examination would contribute to the final overall score.
5. Assessment / Examination 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. Board would 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 pandemic forces complete closure of schools during November-December 2021, Term II exams are held at schools or centres. Term I MCQ based examination would be done by students online/offline 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 the final result.
C. In case the situation of the pandemic forces complete closure of schools during March-April 2022, but Term I exams are held at schools or centres. Results would 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 would 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 in Class X / XII subject to the moderation or other measures to ensure validity and reliability of the assessment. In all the above cases, data analysis of marks of students will be undertaken to ensure the integrity of internal assessments and home based exams.