THE announcement of Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar that the Centre is contemplating bringing back the old system of compulsory Board exams for Std X students studying in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-affiliated schools, has drawn mixed reactions from city school principals, educationists and parents. With the option of internal examinations to be taken away and no clarity yet on the future of the continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) scheme that was introduced in 2010, if this decision does become a reality, the announcement has already generated a debate. School principals say that at least in Maharashtra, the Board examinations are more popular than internal examinations. “Most students opt for Board examinations as they are not sure if they will continue with the CBSE Board after Std X or will they want to join junior colleges affiliated to the state board. Since most students do not want to restrict their choices, they decide to take Board-based examinations. So I don’t think there will be too much opposition to Board-based examinations. However, the announcement does not make it clear what will be the future of the CCE, which allows us to assess students throughout the year and not just in one examination. In CCE, Board examinations are one component of evaluation and we want to know what happens to this system,” said Geeta Pillai, principal of Indira National School. Agreeing to the point on CCE, principal CV Madhavi of Aundh DAV School said that Board-based examinations were anyway more popular among students, however, ambiguity in the announcement over finer details should be made clear. “In the current system, we have examinations in two semesters wherein the first semester, questions are sent by the CBSE Board and schools take exams and assess papers. “The second semester, which is Board-based examinations or internal examinations, choice is based on 50 per cent of the syllabus. Earlier, we used to have an annual Board-based examination in Std X where at end of the year, students would take exams based totally on the syllabus. It is unclear if going to the old system means taking exams based totally on the syllabus,” she said. Educationists feel that more details need to be made public if the decision is indeed true. Lakshmi Kumar, founder director of the Orchid School, Baner said, “I think I would wait for more details as it is all very unsure at the moment. But I would say this that for years, we have been arguing over the merits and demerits of the CCE. We all know that the one-exam system is very backward, but unfortunately when genuine reform was made through CCE, we didn’t do a fine job with it. So now let’s wait and see what is being planned,” she said. Parents, meanwhile, hope the current system stays. V Vijaylakshmi, mother of Std X student of Indira National School said, “My son is opting for Boards as we want his options to be open. However, the system of internal examinations is important for those students who are not so good at studies or get worked up easily. An option of internal examinations can help take off the stress on them and if we take back the decision, we take a step backward. At the same time, one could say that in Std XII, it is mandatory anyway so this is kind of a preparatory stage for it.”
