Will students have to appear for board exams twice a year? What the new curriculum framework says

The new framework has also noted that the current practice of assessing students based on textbooks learning will be avoided.

The Ministry of Education has come up with a new curriculum framework for K-12 education, in line with National Education Policy (NEP), and has submitted it to the government. Textbooks developed based on the new curriculum will be issued for the 2024 academic session.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday said that the government has given the curriculum to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Two panels will examine it and prepare a syllabus accordingly.

“Under the guidance of K.Kasturirangan an Indian space scientist, the steering committee has prepared the curriculum for the new National Education Policy. They submitted it 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),” he told news agency ANI.

Board exams twice a year

In a radical departure, board examinations will now be conducted twice a year and students will be allowed to retain the best score. This purpose is to ensure students have the time and opportunity to perform well.
“Students can then appear for a board exam in subjects they have completed and feel ready for,” said the ministry.

“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.

Choice of subjects

The choice of subjects in classes 11 and 12 will not be limited to the streams students have opted for, and they will have the flexibility to choose among options. Currently, a student who opts for the commerce stream cannot elect to study a subject offered in, say, the science stream.

Without stipulating the exact time frame, the ministry said the school boards will develop capacities to offer “on-demand exams”. Besides, board exam test developers and evaluators will have to go through university-certified courses before taking up this work.

Two-language formula

Students of classes 11 and 12 will have to study two languages with one being an Indian language. The step is in line with NEP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent promise that the policy will give due respect and credit to every language in the country.

The new framework has also noted that the current practice of assessing students based on textbooks learning will be avoided while stressing that the cost of textbooks should be optimised.

"CBSE (the Central Board of Secondary Education) 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,” Shiv Nadar School’s Banga said.