Mita Mukherjee

The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will allow students to take board exams on up to two occasions (one main and one for improvement) from exam year 2023, Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of CISCE said on Tuesday.

The improvement exams, which give students appearing in the board exams to improve their scores, will be a permanent feature from next year, the CISCE chief said.

The decision has been taken in tune with a proposal suggested in the New education Policy (NEP), introduced by the Centre in July 2020 aiming at transforming India’s education system into a modern, progressive and equitable one. The NEP provides multiple options of improvement to students.

A number of recommendations made by the NEP are already a part of the CISCE curriculum, Arathoon said. “For example, our students are offered the freedom to choose from a wide range of subjects. We already have no fixed subject streams as proposed in the NEP. The NEP proposes to introduce improvement exams to ease the pressure on students. From next year the council will conduct improvement exams. Any candidate who would be appearing in the board exams will be given an option to take the  improvement exams to upgrade their scores,” Arathoon told EducationWorld on Tuesday.

The main examination, however, will be compulsory. Another key recommendation of the NEP is to do away with the present 10 + 2 system and adopt a 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 structure.

In order to move towards the four phase system, the council has made it compulsory for all its affiliated schools to have the preschool and plus two units, Arathoon said.

The NEP suggests inclusion of three to six years children the formal education system. In order to implement this recommendation, every school must have pre-school and preparatory section. Several CISCE schools also do not have the plus two units. Students are required to take admission to other schools to study Classes XI and XII after clearing the Class X board exam.

“Many schools affiliated with the CISCE already have their pre-school and plus two units. But there are many others who are yet to introduce their preschool and plus two sections. These schools will have to be upgraded in order to be ready for implementing the 5+3+3 + 4 structure,” Artahoon said.

Another important component of the NEP is abolition of the Class X board exams. In the proposed 5+3+3 + 4 structure the last bracket includes Classes IX to XII. In such a system, the Class XII exam will continue to hold importance but the Class X board exam is likely to lose its significance.

Arathoon said no decision has been taken by the council till now on this score. “ We still don’t know what will be the status of the Class X board exams. The council will take a decision in this regard after it gets the clearance from the Ministry of Education,” said Arathoon.

Also read: CISCE advises schools to implement NEP 2020