Teachers of other schools will be involved in the evaluation of examination scripts, to ensure no bias seeps in.
In order to make school-conducted Class X exams more credible, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will appoint officials to randomly verify assessment procedures.
The board has also directed schools to involve teachers of other schools in evaluation of exam papers, to avoid partiality.
These are part of a set of strict guidelines issued by CBSE on Wednesday, to be followed in the examinations of March this year.
“With the Class X exam becoming optional for the first time, students can now take school-conducted exams. However, with the issuance of guidelines, we want to ensure that school-based exam will maintain the high standards of the board,” said a senior CBSE official.
Since the schools will be conducting and evaluating exam papers, CBSE has strictly asked them not to communicate the marks of the students on their own. Once the evaluation of the answer papers is done by the schools, these should be sent to the board, so that results are declared by CBSE.
“The board would be declaring the results of class X in May, along with the results of board-based summative assessment. We will be issuing a uniform certificate to every student,” said MC Sharma, controller of examinations. “Through the guidelines, we have laid down procedures on how the summative assessment for class X students must be carried out,” he added.
The summative assessment in March represents the final leg of the assessment of students.
Schools will, however, continue to have the freedom to formulate their own question papers, use CBSE question papers’ bank or mix and match them. “In order to ensure standards, the question paper bank in different subjects would be sent by the board so as to reach schools in time. From the question paper bank, the schools can set their respective question papers,” stated the circular issued by CBSE.
Moreover, evaluation of answer scripts will be done by the school teachers themselves, on the basis of the marking scheme provided by the board. With the issuance of guidelines, CBSE hopes all the apprehensions of parents could be put to rest about the credibility of school-conducted exams.
For the first time, from this year onwards, Class X students will have the option of appearing either for the CBSE-conducted board examination or final class X test conducted by their respective schools.
The CBSE made class X board exams optional from 2011, as part of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system. Although there was some apprehension among parents, the number of students who have opted out of the board examination shows that the scheme has found favour with students.
In the very first year that the option has been made available, about two-thirds of students have opted out of the board exam. CBSE sources said about 5 lakh students have opted to go with the school examination. The total number of students studying in class X in schools affiliated to the CBSE across India is 8.23 lakh.
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