The last week has been significant for students appearing for the public / Board examinations this year, and their parents. For one the date sheet (time table) for the various examinations was announced, and with that came three major changes.
The last week has been significant for students appearing for the public / Board examinations this year, and their parents. For one the date sheet (time table) for the various examinations was announced, and with that came three major changes.
On the one side, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) lowered the pass mark for Class X and XII, while on the other the Tamil Nadu Government introduced Board examination for Plus-One from 2018. Another change, which was notified much earlier, was the reintroduction of Board examination for the CBSE (Central Board of School Education) students of Standard X, in place of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE).
The CISCE has reduced the pass mark of Standard X from 35 to 33, and for Standard XII from 40 to 35. Though this change was supposed to come into effect only from 2019, the announcement was made last week that it would be applicable from 2018 itself.
This change makes the pass mark pattern on a par with other Boards of education, including the CBSE.
Tamil Nadu School Education Department will implement the public examination pattern for Plus-One from 2018. The examination will begin on March 7 and end on April 13. Results will be announced on May 30. This move comes in response to constant demand, according to School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan.
It has always been a grouse that many schools failed to complete or totally ignore the Plus-One syllabus in their pursuit to make students thorough in the Plus-Two portions. But there has been feedback from various fronts that it was the Plus-One syllabus that laid the foundation and provided a strong grounding in fundamentals. And, the added rider was that it was on these fundamentals that the national engineering and medical competitive tests based.
Though the State Government thought that one more public examination would address this issue, there were many dissenting voices raised against this decision. Citing the Professor Yash Pal committee report, educationists had said that it had recommended reducing the number of examination. But the Government was increasing the number of examinations that would stress out the students. It was suggested by former Anna University Vice-Chancellor M. Anandakrishnan that to ensure that Plus-One syllabus was fully covered, the Plus-Two question paper should include a fair share of questions from the Plus-One syllabus.
This move to make Plus-One a public exam was expected to equip the State Board students to crack the NEET and other national level competitive tests. The question paper was also accordingly given a total makeover and based on both internal assessment and external examination, quite similar to the CBSE pattern.
This included ten marks for internal assessments - attendance, class test/assignments/projects, etc. Class tests would carry five marks, awarded on the basis of the best three performances.
Coming to the new assessment scheme of the CBSE for standard X, the single annual Board examination has taken the place of CCE. The total 100 marks have been divided into 80 for final examination and 20 for internal assessment. While the pass mark here is again 33, it is essential for the student to score 33 per cent in the Board examination as well as the internal assessment.
The internal assessment included 10 marks for the best of three periodic tests in each subject, five marks for notebook submission, and five marks for subject enrichment activity that included speaking and listening skills and practical lab work.
Will all these changes bring about the required so-called improvements as envisaged by the decision makers remains a gamble.
On the one side, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) lowered the pass mark for Class X and XII, while on the other the Tamil Nadu Government introduced Board examination for Plus-One from 2018. Another change, which was notified much earlier, was the reintroduction of Board examination for the CBSE (Central Board of School Education) students of Standard X, in place of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE).
The CISCE has reduced the pass mark of Standard X from 35 to 33, and for Standard XII from 40 to 35. Though this change was supposed to come into effect only from 2019, the announcement was made last week that it would be applicable from 2018 itself.
This change makes the pass mark pattern on a par with other Boards of education, including the CBSE.
Tamil Nadu School Education Department will implement the public examination pattern for Plus-One from 2018. The examination will begin on March 7 and end on April 13. Results will be announced on May 30. This move comes in response to constant demand, according to School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan.
It has always been a grouse that many schools failed to complete or totally ignore the Plus-One syllabus in their pursuit to make students thorough in the Plus-Two portions. But there has been feedback from various fronts that it was the Plus-One syllabus that laid the foundation and provided a strong grounding in fundamentals. And, the added rider was that it was on these fundamentals that the national engineering and medical competitive tests based.
Though the State Government thought that one more public examination would address this issue, there were many dissenting voices raised against this decision. Citing the Professor Yash Pal committee report, educationists had said that it had recommended reducing the number of examination. But the Government was increasing the number of examinations that would stress out the students. It was suggested by former Anna University Vice-Chancellor M. Anandakrishnan that to ensure that Plus-One syllabus was fully covered, the Plus-Two question paper should include a fair share of questions from the Plus-One syllabus.
This move to make Plus-One a public exam was expected to equip the State Board students to crack the NEET and other national level competitive tests. The question paper was also accordingly given a total makeover and based on both internal assessment and external examination, quite similar to the CBSE pattern.
This included ten marks for internal assessments - attendance, class test/assignments/projects, etc. Class tests would carry five marks, awarded on the basis of the best three performances.
Coming to the new assessment scheme of the CBSE for standard X, the single annual Board examination has taken the place of CCE. The total 100 marks have been divided into 80 for final examination and 20 for internal assessment. While the pass mark here is again 33, it is essential for the student to score 33 per cent in the Board examination as well as the internal assessment.
The internal assessment included 10 marks for the best of three periodic tests in each subject, five marks for notebook submission, and five marks for subject enrichment activity that included speaking and listening skills and practical lab work.
Will all these changes bring about the required so-called improvements as envisaged by the decision makers remains a gamble.