The central government’s move of reviving CBSE Class X board examinations from 2018 has come as an alert notification to Class IX students. Union Minister for Human Resource and Development Prakash Javadekar on November 28, 2016, had announced the compulsory reintroduction of the Class X board exam for students affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). However, this decision would be applied from the 2017-18 academic year for CBSE schools. The above decision was taken by the HRD Minister after a series of feedback from the schools, state governments, parents and teachers to make the exam compulsory again.
Earlier in 2010, the CBSE had scrapped board exams for class X and had replaced it with Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system. The agenda of the CBSE board then was to reduce pressure and burden on the students of writing stressful exams. This CCE system introduced by CBSE under the 2009 Right to Education Act, was enhanced to lighten the pressure on students by making them write multiple answer questions. This move was strongly supported in the beginning by all the schools affiliated to CBSE. Nevertheless, the decision of discontinuing the board exams had its own impact on the academic standards. Flipping the coin, the board had witnessed a decrease in the number of drop-outs though. The CBSE board has over 18,000 schools under its fold and is determined towards improving the quality education of all affiliated schools across the country.
Considering the above constraints, the CBSE has begun a review of the optional board exams for Class X as well as the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) followed in affiliated schools. The feedback stated that doing away with board exams has brought down the academic standards. As per the current Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system Class X students need to appear for six examinations only — four formative assessments and two summative assessments. Therefore it was suggested that class X students should be made to write descriptive answers in their school.
Here are the reasons how reintroduction of board exams for class X is going to benefit students
- Consistency: The board examination helps the students in maintaining a consistency in their performance. Class X examination gives them the right attitude to go with a perfect preparation and planning for the exams thereby enabling them to balance the stress. This also gives them a preview of the class XII exams.
- Competitive spirit: The Class X board examination is a right platform for students to analyze their capabilities and strengths. Students have to compete with other class X students across India which awakens and amplifies the competitive spirit in the students to give their best. This self-analysis keeps them on the motivating track boosting up their confidence to excel in their performance. It cultivates the spirit of competency in every individual student to set a benchmark.
- Constructing phase: Appearing for Class X exams before Class XII exams can be seen as constructing phase for students preparing them for the Class XII boards. This phase makes them familiar with the upcoming exams and infuses confidence in them to face the exam.
The crucial reason behind reintroducing board exams for class X is that many students were unable to take the pressure of appearing directly for Class XII board exams. This has made it obvious for the CBSE board to give the students a foretaste of how board exams are before appearing for Class XII. For any student, Class XII is an important examination as this exam assists them to choose their career and chase their higher education dreams.
Children must be examined regularly to see their progress and evaluation of students’ progress should be a continuous process. So let all students, schools, state governments and parents welcome the government’s move of reviving CBSE Class XII board examinations for the benefit of students.
Regardless of the government’s decision to reintroduce CBSE Class X board exams or defer with it, schools should not be appalled of the consequences in the grading system. MyClassboard ensures all the schools of easy calculation of grades using its Gradebook tool. Even though the results are in the form of Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA), the grading tool empowered by MyClassboard helps in calculating the grades of students and displaying them on report cards.
The Auto Grade Conversion feature of our Gradebook tool does automatic grade calculation preventing the school management from doing it manually thereby saving time. Gradebook application enables the teachers to upload the marks or grades of students online or offline. Schools can now stop worrying about how to calculate grades if CBSE class X board exams are reintroduced. Rather they can relax and resolute towards preparing students for the board exams. MyClassboard has it all to ease your burden and to keep you moving towards the bench of success.
