The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the Class X and XII board exams in two parts in 2021-22 in view of the pandemic.

The current 2021-22 academic session will be divided into two terms, according to the “Special Scheme of Assessment for Board Examination Classes X and XII for the Session 2021-22,” released by the CBSE on Monday. Fifty percent of the syllabus will be covered in each of the term, according to the scheme. There will be a board examination after the end of each term.

“The syllabus for the Academic session 2021-22 will be divided into 2 terms by following a systematic approach by looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics by the Subject Experts and the Board will conduct examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus…” the CBSE circular read.

“This is done to increase the probability of having a Board conducting classes X and XII examinations at the end of the academic session” the CBSE said in the circular.

The decision comes after widespread uncertainty during the 2021-21 academic year due to the second wave of Covid-19 and the subsequent postponement and later cancellation of the Class X and XII board exams. The  CBSE had finally asked the schools to use a combination of Class X, XI and XII marks and internal assessment scores to calculate the final results of the students.

According to the scheme, the first term examinations will be held in October-November within a window of four to eight weeks. The question papers of the first term examinations will have multiple-choice questions and the duration of each paper will be 90 minutes.

 The question papers will be sent to schools along with the marking scheme. The exams will be supervised by external superintendents and observers to be appointed by the board. The answer sheets will be sent to the board and they will be evaluated automatically and the marks obtained by students will be uploaded by the school on the very same day.

The final direction in this regard will be conveyed to schools by the board. Marks of the first term examination will contribute to the final overall score of students.

The second term examinations will be conducted around March-April 2022. The questions will be in different formats such as case-based, situation- based, open-ended short answer or long answer type. The duration of the tests will be two hours.

Dates for conduct of examinations will be notified subsequently, the board said.

“In case the situation is not conducive for normal descriptive examination a 90 minute MCQ based exam will be conducted at the end of the Term II also. Marks of the Term II Examination would contribute to the final overall score,” the CBSE said.

If the schools remain closed completely during November –December 2021, the first term examination will be held online or offline from home. In this case, the weightage given to this exam for the final score will be reduced, and weightage of second term exams will be increased for preparing the final result.

In case the situation forces complete closure of schools during March-April 2022, but the first term exams are held at schools or centres the results  would be based on the performance of students on first term examination and internal assessments. The weightage of marks of first term examination conducted by the board will be increased to provide year end results of candidates.

In case the pandemic forces complete closure of schools and both the exams are taken from home the results would be computed on the basis of the internal assessment, practical and project work and theory marks of first term and second term taken by the candidate from home. In this case the theory marks will be moderated to ensure the reliability of the assessment.

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