Post Cancellation of Board Exams, How CBSE Proposes to Mark its Class 10, 12 Students

The board has also given guidelines for the evaluation process.

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CBSE 10th, 12th Exam 2020: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it will not conduct the class 10th examination while the students of Class 12th will be given an option of appearing in exams after conditions are conducive. The Class 12 students will get the option to appear in examinations or take assessment on the basis of their performance in past three exams.

SC had last week asked CBSE to consider scrapping the class 10 and Class 12 board exams in view of the growing cases of coronavirus infections in the country.

The court made this suggestion in response to a plea from a group of parents, who have asked for cancellation of the remaining board exams citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

In their plea, the parents said that conducting examinations across over 15,000 centres at this stage would unnecessarily expose children to the risk of contracting Covid-19. It also asked the board to allot marks to students for the remaining papers on the basis of their internal assessment and performance in practicals and examinations they took in March.

CBSE 10th, 12th Exam 2020: SC points out that the scheme should clearly spell out the following

* Assessment will be the basis of admission into future courses

* Time frame to assess whether conditions are conducive

* The decision to hold such exam in future to be taken at the central level and not left to states

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has prepared an assessment scheme a day after the Supreme Court asked it to offer more clarity on the options given to Class 12 students between internal assessment marks and taking the exams at a later date after the board cancelled the exams scheduled between July 1 and 15.

"For the students of both classes X and XII, who have completed all their examinations, their results will be declared based on their performance in the examinations. For students who have appeared in more than three subjects, the average of the marks obtained in the best three performing subjects will be awarded in the subjects whose examinations have not been conducted," read the proposed assessment scheme.

It further said that for students who have appeared in the examinations in only three subjects, the average of the marks obtained in the best two performing subjects will be awarded in the subjects whose examinations have not been conducted.

"There are very few students of class XII, mainly from Delhi, who have appeared in the examinations in only one or two subjects. Their results will be declared based on performance in the appeared subjects and performance in internal/practical/project assessment. These students will also be allowed to appear in the optional examinations conducted by CBSE to improve their performance, if they desire to do so. Results of these students will be declared along with other students," the proposed assessment scheme further read.

During the hearing on Friday, the Supreme Court refused to fix a deadline for Class 12 students to decide whether they want to sit in the optional exams. CBSE may even decide not to hold the optional exams if the situation is not normal.

The Council for Indian School Certificate Examination, CISCE (ICSE Board), however, said that it may conduct optional exams even for Class X students since their marking criteria is a bit different from CBSE.

The court, on Thursday, had asked the board to issue for a redrafted notification for students to get better clarity on aspects of optional exams, publication of results and the new academic session, and the matter was fixed for Friday.

The Class 12 students, the CBSE told the court, will be given an option to accept the scores on the basis of their last three internal assessments conducted in their schools, or sit in the remaining exams at a future date, which will be conducted as and when the situations are conducive.

The option to sit for the exams is only available to Class 12 students, the CBSE said, and exams for Class 10 have been scrapped completely.

The central board decided to postpone the pending exams as a precautionary measure on March 18 due to the coronavirus crisis, and had scheduled the remaining exams in the first half of July.

But since the pandemic shows no signs of slowing and cases have crossed the 4.7 lakh mark, worried parents had moved the Supreme Court against the exam schedule.