In a latest development, the Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) exams for classes 11 and 12 will witness a slew of changes from the upcoming 2024-25 session.
Aligning Class 11 & 12 Exams With NEP 2020
It appears that the CBSE has introduced changes in assessment and evaluation in order to align with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Under this update, Class 11 and 12 board exams will now have more competency-based questions and fewer constructed response questions.
Further, the updated format will be based on more competency-based questions as it is designed to assess the application of concepts in real-life situations, as per the information provided by the board officials.
Moving ahead, the competency-focused questions in the form of MCQs/case-based questions, source-based integrated questions or any other type in Class 11 and 12 have been increased from 40 per cent to 50 percent as per these revised guidelines.
Contrary to this, the constructed response questions (short answer questions/ long answer type questions, as per existing pattern) have been reduced from 40 percent to 30 percent in the 2024-25 academic session.
It is noteworthy here that there is no change for the select response type questions (MCQ) which remain the same at 20 percent.
Aligning Assessment to Competencies
Pouring more light on the subject, Director (Academics), CBSE, Joseph Emanuel said, “The board in accordance with National Education Policy, 2020 has taken multiple steps towards implementation of Competency Based Education in schools, ranging from aligning assessment to competencies, development of exemplar resources for teachers and students as well as continuous capacity building of the teachers etc.”
Further adding,”The main emphasis of the board was to create an educational ecosystem that would move away from rote memorization and towards learning that is focused on developing the creative, critical and systems thinking capacities of students to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
In the meantime, the board is continuing with aligning the assessments and evaluation practices with NEP- 2020 for the academic session 2024-2025, said Emanuel.
Adding, “Consequently, in the forthcoming session, the percentage of Competency Based Questions that assess application of concepts in real-life situations included in the question papers of the board has been altered.”
If you are wondering about Classes 9 and 10, notably there is no change in the exam format so far.
