The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced that the date sheet for Term 1 of offline board exams for students of Classes 10 and 12 will be released on Monday, 18 October. Scheduled to be held in November-December 2021, the questions on the exam will follow the objective-type format and will have the duration of 90 minutes each, reported NDTV.
In order to avoid learning loss for its students in Classes 10 and 12, the board made a decision to divide subjects into two categories — minor and major.
As the board conducts examinations for 189 subjects, it decided against holding them at one go, as it would take between 40 and 45 days to complete them. Hence, it will hold exams for minor subjects first, followed by major subjects.
Since major subjects are offered by nearly all its affiliated schools, the board said that "the exams of these subjects will be conducted by fixing date sheets as done earlier", NDTV reported.
As for minor subjects, CBSE has decided to group schools offering them, thus enabling the schools to conduct more than one paper in a day.
As per Indian Express, Term 2 papers will be held in March-April 2022, with exams including both short and long answer-type questions. The second term will also have exams with a two-hour duration, depending on the COVID-19 situation at the time.
Keeping in mind the winter season, the board also made the decision to delay the start time by an hour, from 10:30 am to 11:30 am.
Indian Express reported that according to CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj, students would not be placed in the pass, compartment, and essential repeat categories after the first term.
"The final results will be announced after the first and second term examinations" he told them.
As examinations for students of Class 10 and Class 12 from the previous batch could not be conducted in view of the pandemic, the board had to assess students and declare results using alternative methods.
To avoid repeating the situation for the current batch, while also conducting at least one board exam, the CBSE decided to split the 2021-2022 board exams into two terms earlier this year.
(With inputs from NDTV and Indian Express)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)