CBSE to discontinue Class X board exam from 2013

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced that no common board exams will be held for Class X students from the next academic session 2012-13.

The continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) was introduced by the CBSE last year, which made the board examinations optional. This was a move to unburden students from board exam pressure. It also had an option for students to choose among school based programme or board exams. However, from 2012-13, the CBSE has decided to completely replace board exams with school based exams by making it compulsory for all.

Astonishingly, very few students opted for the school-based examinations conducted in March 2011. More than 90% students in Andhra Pradesh opted for Board exams. At the national level as well, the response was very poor. Around 6 lakh students opted for Board exams out of a total of 9 lakh.

The reason behind this poor response was the apprehensions among parents and students regarding the credibility of school exams compared to those conducted by CBSE. However, this year with about 40% students in Andhra opting for school-based exams, the response has been definitely better.

CBSE will randomly verify evaluated answer sheets, to ensure that evaluation has been fair. And it has also decided to supply question papers for school-based exams and only the evaluation part will be done at school-level.