New Delhi: From next year onwards, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will be holding exams for 'skill education' (vocational) and related subjects in the second half of February, the Board said on Wednesday.
However, the examination for the core academic subjects such as languages, maths, and science subjects will continue to be held in March.
The board in support of its decision cited a Delhi High Court directive which had asked it to ensure that the time of results of exams and re-evaluation are taken into account while determining the cut-off date for admission to colleges of Delhi University, it said in a statement.
There are about 40 skill education courses being offered by the CBSE in class 12 and 10.
"There are also certain other related subjects such as Typography and Computer Applications (English), Web applications, Graphics, Office Communication, etc. where there are very few students, in fact, less than 500. These will also be included in February exams as these subjects have a larger practical component, and shorter theory papers," the CBSE said.
Unlike most other Boards, CBSE does not have any streams or fixed combination of subjects at senior secondary level. At present, the examination date-sheet of CBSE begins from March, and it extends to seven weeks or more, to be able to accommodate all possible combinations of subjects.
"Due to this, results go into the fourth week of May, and the re-evaluation process gets over only by July-end. By this time, the admissions in DU and many other universities is almost complete," it added.
The subjects for which the exams will be held in February and in March will be notified on the CBSE website next week.
After the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) faced embarrassment following question paper leaks in March this year, the Board had stated it is now considering using encrypted question papers for Class X and XII examinations and passing on the task of printing them to schools from next year. The move is being currently tested as a pilot project in the ongoing compartmental examinations.
The CBSE is also planning to provide logistical support to examination centres which lack adequate printing and xerox machines.
“We are testing this on pilot basis during the compartment exams where question papers are being delivered via e-mails 30 minutes ahead of the exam. The pass words are sent separately to the centre superintendent and the question papers are printed and photocopied at the centres itself,” CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi had told reporters.
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Also, the CBSE is likely to come up with a change in the Class 10 board exams in 2019.
According to a report of Hindustan Times, the Board may introduce two sets of question papers for the mathematics exam where students will have the option to choose whether to answer a standard-level or the existing-level mathematics question paper.
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Meanwhile, students will have to make the choice during filling of forms for the exam later this year, HT reported citing officials familiar with the development.
As per reports, such a decision from CBSE is to make the students, who don’t want to pursue maths for higher studies, go for a simpler question paper.
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Depending on the success of the above plan, the Board may introduce the same system in Class 12. Moreover, a 15-member committee has reportedly been formed comprising mathematics experts and others to look into it.
[With Agency Inputs]