CBSE to revert to one board exam pattern next year? Decision yet to be taken

“The decision to conduct the board exams in two terms was taken in view of the unprecedented situation posed by the pandemic where for the 2020-21 academic session, the students had to be assessed using an alternate assessment scheme as no board exams could be conducted. The move was announced as a one time measure,” a senior board official said.

“The decision about whether it will be extended to the new academic session or not will be taken in due course of time,” he added.

Recent reports had stated that students of classes 10 and 12 will have to appear for only one board exam from next year. 

“Even as the NEP 2020 favours two-term exams, it has been decided to switch to the previous practice for now and conduct one set of board exams at the end of the academic year. The stakeholders also suggested one exam policy,” an official was recently quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. 

The move to split the academic session into two terms for classes 10 and 12 was recommended in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Under the split term system, the first term board examination was held in December last year and the second term board examination is scheduled to start on 26 April.

This comes as the University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all central universities to only use CUET scores for admission in various undergraduate courses except for some activity-oriented programmes such as performing arts and physical education.

The UGC had last month announced that Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores, and not class 12 scores, will be mandatory for admission to 45 central universities and the varsities can fix their minimum eligibility criteria.