CBSE Class 10, 12 board exams will happen 'for sure'; schedule to be announced soon

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Board examinations for class 10 and 12 will happen “for sure” and the scheduled will soon be revealed, said the CBSE Secretary Anurah Tripathi on November 20. While demands from various quarters for cancellation are rising in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the board secretary said that the exams are set to take place and CBSE “will soon reveal how” the test assessments will be done. 

During the webinar on ‘New Education Policy (NEP): Brighter future of school education’ organised by ASSOCHAM, Tripathi however, did not comment on whether the exams will be conducted in the same format or if they will take place in February-March as per scheduled or of the exams will be delayed. 

"The board exams will happen for sure and a schedule will be announced very soon. The CBSE is making plans and will soon reveal how it will do test assessments," he said as quoted by PTI.

"During March-April we were flummoxed as to how to move forward, but our schools and teachers rose to the occasion and transformed, trained themselves in using new technology for teaching purposes and within few months conducting online classes using different apps became normal," Tripathi said.

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COVID-19 pandemic and impact on education

While the world is rocked with COVID-19 pandemic, the schools across India were closed in March to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. This significantly shifted the education to remote methods such as online schooling but since October 15, several schools have reopened partially. Even now, some states have decided to keep the educational institutes shut in the wake of the resurgence of cases. 

The board exams that had to be postponed mid-way were later cancelled and the results were also announced in an alternative assessment scheme. There have now been demands of postponing the board exams to May since the schools were continuously closed and teaching-learning activities were greatly impacted. However, Tripathi noted that the common aim of all educational policies including the NEP is the shift to remote learning. He said, “the entire NEP 2020's thrust and the main aim is to make a shift to skill and competency-based education.”

"We need to move students away from knowledge-based education to competency and skill-based learning. To implement skill-based, competency-based education there is a need to transform and follow entire pedagogy based teaching-learning process be it classroom teaching, face-to-face teaching or online teaching,” he said.

"The pedagogy based teaching-learning process is more about making students more curious, innovative, creative and providing them experiential learning and this can be achieved only when schools, teachers and principals change the teaching pedagogy," he added.

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