Board Exam 2021: Common assessment could be adopted by Centre, states

Representative image | PC-Shutterstock

A common assessment methodology could be adopted by individual state boards for the Class 12 board examinations 2021 in consultation with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Sources said that this would ensure that there are no discrepancies in the final marksheet that is issued to individual students.

This is good news for students because a uniform assessment would mean fair evaluation at the time of college admissions.

CBSE is likely to bring out the Assessment Scheme for marking students across schools by June 25.

The Class 12 board exams were cancelled for CBSE and CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) schools on June 1.

Second wave

This has come in the wake of the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 1, it was decided that the CBSE Class 12 board exams for 2021 will be cancelled.

State governments including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh called off the Class 12 board exams in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns expressed by schools about holding the tests.

The next step is to declare the assessment scheme based on which the students will be marked. This marksheet will be crucial for admission into higher education programmes in India and abroad.

"Rather than have varied assessment schemes, it would be viable to have a similar methodology so that there is uniformity among students across boards, and colleges are also able to bring out merit lists accordingly," said a government official.

The cut-off merit lists for undergraduate admissions are prepared based on the score-trends of students in CBSE board and other state boards. For example, if the highest scores in CBSE for the Science stream is 98 percent, the cut-off for science courses would be similar at major campuses like the Delhi University.

A series of meetings have been held between CBSE and state education departments between June 5-12. A final decision is likely over the next one week.

What are the options being considered?

One option suggested to the boards is that the final marksheet would be brought out based on the performance of students in the last-held term examination plus the internal assessment. This means that marks scored in the last term tests would be used to assess students.

Another option on the table is using the full-year performance, including scores in various oral tests, pre-boards, first and second term examinations in school.

Here, it is likely that students who missed writing online tests due to COVID-19, would be given some concessions, or be allowed to appear for physical exams at a later date.