ICSE & CBSE
Board Exams 2022

Some things are changing for good, one of them being the Education system in India. With the onset of pandemic, schools and colleges in India have adapted to a digital platform like no other industry in any country. Within a matter of a few days for some and weeks for rest, all the schools be private or public had enabled an online learning platform for their students. Availability of high speed bandwidth at low cost ushered in a new era of Digital Schooling in India which is here to stay. While some fear the onset of technology, reality remains that this was long due for the Indian Education System.

Coincidently, Indian Ministry of Education announced the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as well last year. The quantum of changes and scale of effectiveness makes it clear that this was not worked overnight but in process for a while.

As the Covid Pandemic continues to disrupt our lives, we continue to evolve in ways never imagined possible. One of the major changes coming along was recently announced by the ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) and CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) on the new methodology of conducting the ever feared board exam.

What is the Change?
ICSE and CBSE boards have initiated the move to split the board exams for grade X and XII in to two semesters.

• • Term 1 will be Multiple Choice Questions or Objective Type of questions and account for 90 marks, which will be conducted in the month of November and December. Due to the current pandemic situation schools will be given flexibility for Term 1 exams schedule (4-8 weeks) so as to complete the syllabus by then

  • Term 2 will be subjective type of questions and will account for 120 marks, conducted in March – April

Final marks will be based on performance in both terms with equal weightage. What's more interesting to note is that even the syllabus will be half yearly for each term.

What we think?

The concept of having exams in two parts for X and XII will benefit the students and change the face of education system in India. This will bring an holistic development approach and test the core competencies of students. The age old fear of board exams and the pressure that it builds on their minds will ease out. By conducting the exams in two parts the students will get the time and clarity to build up on their knowledge. Objective type of questions need the core understanding of the concept and subjective type of questions aim to test the critical thinking skills and application based knowledge. This aligns with the NEP 2020. While ICSE and CBSE boards have announced these changes may stay even after the pandemic, if this approach to education is adopted by all the other Indian boards too, India will soon be at par with the education system globally. We are conceptually good but need to improve on application based learning and critical thinking.