Board examinations for class 10 in CBSE schools would be reintroduced as part of the ongoing reforms in the education system, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Friday, October 6.
Presently, CBSE students can either choose to be part of the board exam system or the school-based examination system.
It was also announced that examinations would be conducted in class 5 and class 8. Students who fail the term-end examinations would be detained, Javadekar told reporters.
However, the students would be given an opportunity to improve and appear for another examination before being detained, the Union Minister added.
Under the existing arrangement, students up to Class 8 are promoted to the next class irrespective of their performance.
The Minister added that 25 states have approved the Central government's move in this regard.
No Spiking of Marks in Class 10, 12: HRD Advisory to States
The HRD Ministry also issued an advisory to states and the CBSE to stop the practice of spiking marks in class 10 and class 12 board exams from next year.
However, there was no decision taken on the moderation policy, and the practice was likely to continue.
The practice of awarding grace marks would continue for the students who need just a few marks to pass their exams, but this information has to be disclosed on the school and the state board's websites.
Bunching of marks and their spiking should be completely avoided. The practice of awarding grace marks should continue to pass borderline cases (students who are failing by a few marks).Advisory issued by School Education Secretary Anil Swarup
Moderation policy refers to a practice in which students get extra marks in subjects regarded as 'unusually difficult', or if there have been differences in the sets of question papers.
Spiking, on the other hand, refers to inflation of marks by boards in order to bring parity in pass percentage with respect to the previous year's statistics.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and 32 other boards had developed a consensus on scrapping of the moderation policy in a meeting on 24 April.
However, the Delhi High Court had asked the CBSE to not scrap the policy, saying it is not advisable to implement the change mid way.
(With inputs from PTI)
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