CBSE to make Class 10 examination optional, divide Class 10 into two semesters from 2011

CBSE to make Class 10 examination optional, divide Class 10 into two semesters from 2011
Tagged with: education, India
Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 5:40
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has made examinations for Class 10 optional from 2011. Students of Class 10 in CBSE will have to take Board examinations in 2010, but they will get grades and not marks, Minister Kapil Sibal, Union Human Resources Development, has announced.
However, those students who wish to evaluate themselves (on the Board examination system) can do so on demand.
While all those students who will move from Class 10 to Class 11 in 2011 will have no Board examinations, all the students who will move from Class 10 to Class 11 in 2010 will take a Board examination.
The CBSE will also divide Class 10 into two semesters after the Board examinations are abolished from 2011.
A grading system will be introduced in 2011 – the grades being A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D, E1 and E2.
The 9-point scale will start from A1 (with 91-100 marks, exceptional); A2 (81-90 marks, excellent); B1 (71-80 marks, very good); B2 (61-70 marks, good); C1 (51-60 marks, fair); C2 (41-50 marks, average); D (33-40 marks, below average); E1 (21-32 marks, needs improvement); and E2 (00-20 marks, unsatisfactory).
This 9-point scale is expected to do away with examination-related fear, Kapil Sibal explained.
A high-level committee, headed by Veenith Joshi, chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education, finalised the new grading system.
Once the Board examination for Class 10 is abolished in 2011, students will have the choice to take the Board examination on demand for transfer (to another school) or entry into pre-university institutions.
The examination on demand also is available to students who wish to continue in the same school.
Under the new system, students who wish to continue in the same school after Class 10 need not take the Board examination, starting 2011.
The grading system, Kapil Sibal clarified, would be a “continuous and comprehensive evaluation” that will be good for the students. Along with the grades, students can ask for their percentile.
“This system,” according to him, “will judge the potential of a student very well.”
Another new system, called the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, will take effect from October 2009 for those who are completing Class 10 in 2011.
The CBSE will divide the Class 10 into two semesters – like in management colleges and in engineering colleges – to make the evaluation process easier and smoother after the Board examinations are abolished from 2011, a senior official of the CBSE said.
The year will be divided into two terms, or two semesters – from April to September, and from October to March.
Initially, pupils will be evaluated for the first six months. In the second half of the year, they do not have to bother about what they studied in the first semester, the official said.
The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, which is a system of school-based evaluation of students, will cover all aspects of a pupil’s development, including the core areas of subjects being studied in the classes and the co-curricular activities.
The CCE system has two components – the formative assessment and the summative assessment.
The formative assessment –based on a whole range of tests like project work, interviews, practical assignments and quizzes – will takes care of scholastic as well as co-scholastic aspects of a pupil’s growth.
While the scholastic aspects comprise curricular areas (or, subjects-specific areas), co-scholastic aspects will include attitude and values, life-skills as well as activities related to physical fitness and health.