CBSE Board Exam 2022: Board's new scheme splits academic session into two terms, focuses on internal assessment

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday announced a special assessment scheme for Class 10 and 12 board exams for the 2021-22 academic session. The board exams for the 2021 batch will now be held in two terms with 50 percent of the syllabus in each term. Further, the top education body said it will rationalise the syllabus for Classes 10 and 12 for 2021-22 and it will be notified by July end. As per an official statement by the board, the syllabus for the academic session 2021-22 will be divided into two terms by following a systematic approach by looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics by the Subject Experts, the board will conduct the examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus.

CBSE_Circular_2021 by Manasi Chandu on Scribd

The syllabus for the board examination 2021-22 will be rationalised similar to that of the last academic session to be notified in July 2021.  For academic transactions, however, CBSE schools will follow the curriculum and syllabus released by CBSE on 31 March. Schools will also use alternative academic calendars and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum. The board stated that efforts will be made to make Internal Assessment/ Practical/ Project work more credible and valid as per the guidelines and Moderation Policy to be announced by the Board to ensure fair distribution of marks. Two board exams

• Now, two board exams will be held — each of them will be called Term-I and Term-II exams respectively  — and each will be held on a 50 percent syllabus.
• While Term I paper will be MCQ based which is 90 minutes, Term II paper  2 hours duration and have questions of different formats. (In case the situation is not conducive for normal descriptive examination a 90 minute MCQ-based exam will be conducted at the end of Term II also).
• CBSE will set the question paper and send it to the schools along with the marking scheme.
• The exams will be conducted under the supervision of external center superintendents and observers appointed by CBSE.
• Marks of both Terms I and II will be contributed to the final overall score of students.
• The term-I will be held in November, December while the term-II will be held in March-April.
• The term-I paper will have MCQs including case-based MCQs and assertion-reasoning type MCQs, however, paper-II will have questions on different formats.

CBSE curriculum transaction

• Schools will continue teaching in distance mode till the authorities permit in-person mode of teaching in schools.
• For classes 9 and 10, internal assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) would include the three periodic tests, student enrichment, portfolio and practical work/speaking listening activities/project.
• For Classes 11 and 12, internal assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) would include end of topic or unit tests/exploratory activities/practicals/ projects.
• Schools would create a student profile for all assessment undertaken over the year and retain the evidences in digital format.
• CBSE will facilitate schools to upload marks of internal assessment on the CBSE IT platform.
• Guidelines for internal assessment for all subjects will also be released along with the rationalized term-wise divided syllabus for the session 2021-22. The Board would also provide additional resources like sample assessments, question banks, teacher training etc. for more reliable and valid internal assessments.

With inputs from agencies