The pandemic situation which was caused last year i.e. in the year 2020 due to the covid-19 virus seems to be getting repeated in the current year. Thus, in the wake of this virus outbreak the CBSE board has taken a crucial decision regarding the class 10th examinations.
The CBSE board announced the biggest news of the year yesterday, i.e. on 15th April 2021. The CBSE exams for class 10th have been cancelled while the exams for class 12th have been postponed by the CBSE board.
A meeting was held between our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Education Ministry and the CBSE officials to take this decision. This decision was taken after considering the surge in the patients affected by corona and the increasing need of a lockdown.
The 12th class which were supposed to be to be held from May 4 to June, 14, 2021 are hereby postponed. The exam dates are expected to be announced on or after 1st June after assessing the gravity of the pandemic situation.
CBSE stated that a notice at least 15 days will be given prior to the start of the examinations.
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Calculation of marks for class 10th
An objective criterion will be developed by the board to calculate the marks in CBSE class 10th exam results in 2021.
Here is a list of few important points from the official notification.
• CBSE 10th Result 2021 will be declared based on objective criterion (to be set by the board).
• Students who are not satisfied with their CBSE 10th Result 2021 will be allowed to appear for exams (to be conducted if the conditions are conductive)
The objective criterion included that CBSE will create an assessment scheme consisting of some set of rules. The weightage of the internal assessment might be high in the new scheme.
But this is yet to be decided by the board.
In the official notification, CBSE has also stated that students who are not happy with their result can appear for optional CBSE 10th board exams 2021 later. These optional exams will be conducted when the situation due to COVID-19 outbreak get better.
Several other state boards such as Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Odisha etc. have already taken a decision to either postpone or cancel the 10th board exams.
The Maharashtra and Delhi governments have requested the Center for the cancellation of CBSE Board Exam 2021.
A uniform policy on board exams was being demanded by the students, teachers, and politicians from across the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to release a nationwide guideline regarding the board examinations along with the decision on CBSE Board Exam 2021.
Alternate Assessment Scheme for marks calculation in the last year
In case if you are wondering on what basis CBSE will give marks, below is the list of few important points from the last year’s alternate assessment scheme used by the board to calculate the marks in CBSE Result 2021 which could prove helpful.
• If a student has appeared for more than 3 exams, the average of three papers marks will be used as scores for pending papers.
• For those students who appeared in lesser papers, the average will be based on the two highest-scoring subjects and allotted to the remaining papers.
• For students who have not appeared for less than three exams, their score will be marked as per internal/ practical/ project assessment.
As of now, CBSE Class 10 exams have been cancelled and Class 12 exams have been postponed. Thus, the students of CBSE 12th class can go ahead and check the sample question papers or previous year’s question papers as an addition to their preparation.
Criteria for evaluation and assessment of internal marks
The CBSE board consulted the experts to help them decide the criteria for evaluation of marks for class 10. After considering the suggestions from the experts, the CBSE board officials have come up three ways to assess the students and evaluate their progress.
Below are three points which would be considered as criteria for evaluation and assessment.
- Internal Evaluation of marks
The school have conducted internal assessments during the months from January to March for class 10 students. The marks received by the students in these exams have already been submitted by the schools.
But as there are chances of bias happening from the schools’ side while allotting the marks, these marks would not be the only criterion to assess the students belonging to class 10. Considering this fact, the board will seek advice from the experts as to how much weightage should be given to these internal assessments.
- Periodic and mid-term exam scores
The experts also contemplated over the possibility of including the scores/marks received by the students during the periodic or mid-term exams.
The schools have conducted periodic exams and evaluated students on that basis. Some schools have also used innovative project based assignments to grade students’ progress in the studies. Thus the only way to address the possibility of any bias happening while giving the marks by the schools would be to consider the annual performances of the students. But the weightage to be given on these periodic exams still remains undetermined.
- Inclusion of class 9 score
As the third criterion, the experts also examined the possibility include scores of class 9 while calculation results of class 10. But this decision might pose some challenges as the students were mostly promoted to the next class due to the pandemic situation.
As for the schools, the scores of the students of class 9 were based on their annual performances. In some schools, the students were assessed based on different parameters when they attended the last class.
Some schools also conducted annual exams for class 9. Thus, according to some CBSE examiners, the marks received by the students in class 9 can be used as a metric to gauge the students’ performances.
Thus, the board has tried to seek advice and suggestions from the experts as well as the thousands of CBSE examiners across the countries that are experienced and have been participating in the evaluation process since a long time.
The final decision would be taken by the board and it might require a month to finalize the criteria for providing marks to class 10 students.
The insistence regarding cancellation of 12th board exams
The CBSE 12th board exams have already been postponed by the board until the month of June. The final decision will be taken after reviewing the situation.
Although the pandemic situation across the country is getting better but this improvement is not enough to conduct examinations. Thus the educational stakeholders are insisting on cancelling the CBSE 12th board exams.
According to a senior CBSE official, due to the current unpredictable scenario, the exams would most probably get cancelled. This kind of uncertainty is causing a lot of anxiety among the parents and students.
The students are not able to concentrate on the studies due to the pandemic and the havoc which it has caused in the country. The students do not feel motivated to study or revise the syllabus as they are not sure whether the exams are going to be conducted or not.
Parents are worried about the safety of their children and also about the future of their children. The board is contemplating about giving scores based on the internal marks. As the college admissions are approaching, the parents want the results to be declared sooner.
All of this chaos is adding to the already existing mental pressure and anxiety issues for both the parents and the students as well. Thus, they are insisting on cancellation of the 12th board exams and providing final scores based on the internal scores just like a few foreign countries are doing.
The divided opinions about the 12th board exams
It might seem like everyone is against the decision of conducting CBSE 12th board exam. But there are few stakeholders who are in favour of conducting the 12th board exams even if that implies waiting for some more time till the pandemic wave
As we are aware, the 12th exam scores are extremely crucial if a student wants to perceive higher studies. If the final scores are given on the basis of the internal marks, then that might affect the merit list generation process during admissions.
The students who are not happy with their final scores would demand for another chance to give the exam and receive better scores. This demand would need consideration from the board as the students’ careers and future depend on the 12th board scores.
Due to these reasons, some of the stakeholders such as faculty members and students are requesting for a few reforms in the current system. Although such changes in the education cannot be initiated immediately, they must be definitely considered by the board officials owing to the mental health of the parents and students.
The undergraduate admission process
The admission of students for graduation courses totally depends on the 12th board scores. It will be indeed difficult to for the students to choose the course and for the colleges to grant the admission.
Thus, it has become inevitable to change the admission system entirely. The criteria such as merit list and cut off marks must be eliminated. More and more students must be able to apply for the courses of their choice and get the admission.
The colleges can conduct online entrance exams which can prove useful in the current times of social distancing. As these exams are conducted in an online mode, the students can appear for these exams from their preferred locations.
These entrance exams will enable the colleges to gauge the students on the basis of their knowledge before providing the admissions. Thus, online exams can prove to be an excellent and foolproof way of continuing the educational activities.
This would also provide a big relief to the parents and students who are stressing about what exactly should be given the priority – safety or future.
The solution to internal marks assignment, board exams as well as entrance exams
The assignment of internal marks and conducting the board exams has a burning issue for the CBSE board officials. They are not sure on what basis these marks will be calculated during this pandemic situation.
Online exams are the perfect solution to address this issue as they enable the students to take exams from their own homes. This will help the students to maintain social distancing norms and help the officials to take exam for assignment of internal marks.
Splashgain has developed an online examination system named as Eklavvya which can help to conduct exams in online mode. Eklavvya has been developed using advanced technology such as Artificial Intelligence which helps to eliminate any chances of cheating such as identity frauds, copying from books, using electronic devices, etc.
Eklavvya also provides many innovative features and techniques such as Remote proctoring which help to conduct exams in an environment which completely free of cheating.
An online examination platform such as Eklavvya also offers a system for Onscreen evaluation. This onscreen evaluation system enables the teachers or examiners to check the answers from their preferred location.
Thus, adopting an online platform like Eklavvya will certainly help the schools or colleges to carry on with the teaching-learning activities without any obstacles in a secure manner as also help them to abide by all the government rules related to pandemic to remain safe and healthy.
Eklavvya, an award winning platform for online examination system, has helped many different educational institutes to conduct online exams in a successful manner. Here is a testimonial given by one of the most reputed schools.
