For Academic Year 2021-22, CBSE To Conduct Two Board Exams: Emphasis On Internal Assessment

It had been two years now in COVID-19 pandemic, prevailing uncertainty around board exams, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had no choice but to changed the means of exams.

Academic batch 2021-22:

• There will be two board exams – it will be called term-I and term-II exams.
• Each exam will be held on 50 per cent syllabus delivered to students in the said term.
• The term-end exams will be of 90-minutes duration.
• CBSE will set the question paper and send it to the schools along with the marking scheme.
• The exams will be conducted under the supervision of external Centre Superintendents and observers appointed by CBSE.
• Marks of both term-I and II will be contributed in the final overall score of students. The term-I will be held in November-December while the term-II will be held in March-April.

Pattern of the exams:

• The CBSE term-I exams will have MCQs including case-based MCQs and assertion-reasoning type MCQs.
• The CBSE term-II will have questions on different formats.
• In case the situation is not conducive in March 2022, the schools will hold a two-hour exam in term-II.
• As per the new criteria, the syllabus for the academic session 2021-22 will be divided into two terms.
• In each term, 50 per cent of the syllabus will be covered.
• Subject experts and the Board will conduct examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus.
• The board has decided to rationalize its syllabus.

Schools to Create Student Profile:

• Internal Assessment to have more Weightage.
• Not Just the term-I and II exams, the internal assessment will be given more credit.
• Data collection will start from the beginning of the new academic year onwards. 
• Schools will create a student profile for all assessments undertaken over the year.
• The focus will increase on internal assessment and these exams will be handy in case the COVID-19 situation does not approve in the next year.
• For classes 9 to 10, three periodic tests, student enrichment, portfolio, and practical work, speaking listening activities will be conducted.
• For classes 11 and 12 the internal assessment will include unit tests at end of every topic, exploratory activities, practicals, and projects.
• CBSE will facilitate schools to upload marks of internal assessment on the CBSE IT platform.
• The platform is being utilized by schools this year to upload marks of class 11 and 12 students.
• Detailed guidelines for internal assessment for all subjects will also be released along with rationalized term-wise divided syllabus for the session 2021-22.
• Board would also provide additional resources including sample assessments, question banks, teacher training etc for more reliable and valid internal assessments.
• Schools will continue teaching in distance or online mode for the new sessions. The online classes will continue till the authorities permit in-person mode of teaching in schools.

CBSE in an official statement said that the new criteria is “in line with the Board’s continued focus on assessing stipulated learning outcomes by making the examinations competencies and core concepts based, student-centric, transparent, technology-driven, and having advance provision of alternatives for different future scenarios”