Board exams twice a year, class 11 and 12 students to study 2 languages

The new policy states that the board exams will be conducted twice a year and students will be allowed to retain the best of the two scores.

Ministry of Education on August 23 launched the new curriculum framework for school education in sync with the National Education Policy (NEP).

According to ministry officials, the curriculum, as per the New Education Policy (NEP), is ready and textbooks will be developed on its basis for the 2024 academic session.

In classes 11 and 12, students will have to study two languages and one of them has to be an Indian language, the final NCF (National Curriculum Framework) document accessed by PTI said.

In order to make the board exams easier from the current high stakes practice, the examination will assess the understanding and achievement of competencies rather than months of coaching and memorisation.
Board exams will be offered at least twice a year to ensure students have

enough time and opportunity to perform well. Students can then appear for a board exam in subjects they have completed and feel ready for. They will also be allowed to retain the best score, it said.

The choice of subjects in classes 11 and 12 will not be restricted to streams such as Arts, Science and Commerce to get flexibility to choose.

In due course of time, school boards are to develop capacities to offer on demand exams in due course of time. Besides board exam test developers and evaluators will have to go through university-certified courses before taking up this work, it said.

The new framework has also noted that the current practice of covering textbooks in classroom will be avoided, while stressing that the cost of textbooks should be optimised.

"CBSE has been slowly shifting from rote learning to competency-based assessment. This announcement may seem like a radical step, but the intent is meaningful unpacking of the curriculum. The idea is to shift the mindset from the race of 'covering' the syllabus. It moves the focus from teaching to learning. While we at Shiv Nadar School offer flexible subject choices, there are many schools where choices are limited to streams. The flexibility, which is being offered now, and the option to appear twice for a board exam may be a boon for students. While there will be teething issues, embedding it as a process will be worthwhile," said Chinar Banga, Deputy Head, Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad.

On Joint Workshop of National Curriculum Framework Oversight And NSTC Committee, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says, "Under the guidance of Kasturirangan, the steering committee has prepared the curriculum for the new National Education Policy. They submitted to the government. The government gave it to the NCERT. NCERT has made two committees, National Oversight Committee and National Syllabus and Textbook Committee (NSTC). We expect both these committees to prepare a syllabus according to the requirements of the 21st century and based on original Indian thinking. We want them to prepare futuristic teaching and learning material for class 3 to 12. The first orientation meeting took place today. We are confident that at a time when the world is expecting a lot from India, when the PM has shown the dream of Amrut Kal to the nation, at such times, the new textbooks will fulfil those requirements."