Agencies
New Delhi, June 21: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is planning to advance the cycle of exams and related activities from 2018-19 as a part of reforms focused on “error-free evaluation”. As a result, Class X and XII Board exams will take place in February instead of March from 2018.
In addition, the process will not drag over 45 days. Instead, it will be completed within a month. At present, board exams begin March 1 and end around April 20.
According to CBSE chairman R K Chaturvedi, this would also advance the date of declaration of results, which generally come around the third or fourth week of May. He said, “The examinations should start around February 15 and we are also planning to complete them within a month.”
The early results, the board believes, will also help CBSE students with the undergraduate admission process. “Otherwise it has been a neckand-neck affair,” said the chairperson. The board’s plan to advance the examinations is a part of the reforms in the evaluation process, which has come under the scanner due to glaring errors in the practice.
“By April, vacations begin and the experienced teachers are not available. Therefore, advancing evaluation to mid-March will ensure we have the best teachers checking the answer scripts. Otherwise, in April during vacations, schools offer us only temporary, ad-hoc and newly-appointed teachers for the evaluation exercise as experienced teachers don’t oblige,” CBSE chief said. According to the CBSE chairman, this will also offer the board some breathing room to work on results in its bid to make them error-free.
Under the new scheme, the CBSE is expecting the best and experienced teachers to come for evaluation and it is also going to conduct two training sessions for the evaluators.
Each year around 50,000 teachers are engaged in the evaluation process across 2,000 centres. Most of the centres are at Kendriya Vidyalayas.