India: Board exams to be held twice a year from 2024, says Ministry of Education

One of India's most crucial examinations, the so-called board exams, is going to be held twice a year, as opposed to once earlier, which could be a huge relief to millions of high school students. This major move is part of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for School Education in sync with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which was announced on Wednesday (Aug 23) by India's Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan.

According to the NCF, all students will be allowed to appear in the board exams twice a year so that they can perform well. The studentscan sit for the exam of the subjects they feel they have prepared well. The ministry also assured that students can retain their best marks.

The education ministry said, "Board exams will be offered at least twice a year to ensure students have enough time and opportunity to perform well. Students can then appear for a board exam in subjects they have completed and feel ready for. They will also be allowed to retain the best score."

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Furthermore, all the students of Classes 11 and 12 will study two languages, out of which one should be Indian.

TheNFC said that to make board exams “easier” from the current "high stakes,"the exam will assess the understanding and achievement of competencies rather than months of coaching and memorisation.

It added that Board exam developers and evaluators will also have to go through university-certified courses before taking up the job.

With this, the NCF aims to offer "on demand"exams very soon to align with the curriculum of NEP.

It is believed that the ministry will put an end to the practice of covering textbooks and will optimise it.

Until now students from class 9 to 12 studied five mandatory subjects with one optional subject but, now according to the new education framework, the number of mandatory subjects for the students of class 9 and 10 is seven and for students of 11 and12 is six.

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The NCF has grouped all optional subjects into three parts, the first group includes art education, physical education and vocational education.

Furthermore, thesecond group includes humanities, social science and interdisciplinary areas whereas the third group includes science, mathematics, and computational thinking.

This division aims to offer more flexibilityamong students to choose the interesting combinations of subjects according to their preferences.

Pradhan further said, "The textbooks for Classes 3-12 are to be aligned with 21st century requirements, making them rooted and futuristic.

(With inputs from agencies)

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