The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday revamped its assessment scheme for class 10 and 12 board exams to be conducted in 2024 by introducing more Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). The board has also reduced the weightage for questions requiring short or long answers, according to officials.
They stated that the move is intended to gradually align assessment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendations.
The change, however, may be limited to the 2023-24 academic year, as board exams are expected to be reformed next year with the implementation of the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF).
“The National Education Policy, 2020, has affirmed the need to shift away from rote learning and towards learning that is more focused on developing students’ creative and critical thinking capacities in order for them to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century proactively.” “The board is initiating changes in examination and assessment practises for the academic session 2023-24 in order to align assessment with Competency Focused Education,” said CBSE Director Joseph Emanuel (Academics).
“As a result, in the upcoming session, the question paper will include a greater number of Competency Based Questions or questions that assess application of concepts in real-life situations,” he added.
In class 10, 50% of the questions will be competency-based, such as MCQs, case-based questions, source-based integrated questions, or other types. In the previous academic session, such questions were weighted at 40%.
The objective questions will now necessarily be MCQs with 20 per cent weightage.
The weightage for short answer and long answer type questions has been reduced to 30 per cent from 40 per cent last year.
Similarly, in class 12, 40% of the questions will be competency-based, such as MCQs, case-cased questions, source-based integrated questions, or any other type.
The weightage for such questions in the last academic session was 30 per cent.
In class 12 too, the objective questions will now necessarily be MCQs with 20 per cent weightage. The weightage for short answer and long answer type questions has been reduced to 40 per cent from 50 per cent last year.