Boards exams to be in pen and paper mode: CBSE

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education examination for students of classes X and XII will take place in pen and paper mode and will not be online. The board has also said that alternatives will be explored for students who are unable to appear for the practicals.

In a statement on Wednesday, CBSE said, “The exams as and when they are conducted, will be in the written mode and not in online mode. The exams will be conducted following all Covid protocols.”

With schools closed, principals, teachers and students are also all concerned about the practical segment of the exam for different subjects. Class XII science students especially are affected because practicals carry 30 marks. Addressing this worry, CBSE’s statement on Wednesday said, “In case students are not able to do practicals in classes before the exams, alternatives to practical exams will have to be explored.”

Despite the statement being issued, the board is actually yet to decide when the exams will be held. “Consultations with stakeholders are still in process,” said an official. The Union education ministry will have meetings with teachers, students and parents on December 10 regarding the exams. Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had tweeted and asked the stakeholders to share their concerns.

The minister’s tweet said, “Dear all, 2020 has been a year of a great many changes like adjusting to #onlineeducation, adapting to #newnormal. Happy to share that I am going live on Dec 10 to talk about upcoming competitive / board exams with you. Drop your concerns below using #EducationMinisterGoesLive.”

With Delhi having the highest number of students appearing for these exams, Delhi government’s Directorate of Education had suggested that the exams should be held in May instead of beginning as usual in February. Students who will sit for the exams next year haven’t attended a single physical class this year.

For this current batch, the exam syllabus has been reduced by almost a third due to disruption by the Covid pandemic. However, for the practicals, there has been no change according to the teachers. Delhi government had requested a further slashing of the syllabus. CBSE has responded to the situation by changing the question pattern slightly and given more weightage to multiple-choice questions.