“Let us together celebrate the festival of exams !” screams the poster of the Ministry of Human Resource Development featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with some school children on his Twitter handle. The announcement says: “Making exams fun: Chat with PM Narendra Modi”.
“Let us together celebrate the festival of exams !” screams the poster of the Ministry of Human Resource Development featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with some school children on his Twitter handle. The announcement says: “Making exams fun: Chat with PM Narendra Modi”.
A take on his famous ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ campaign during the 2014 elections, a ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ (discussion on examinations) has been called for by PM Modi, which will be an interactive session with students - appearing for the X and XII Board exams of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) - to be held on February 16 at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi., at 11 a.m.
The announcement adds that students will interact, discuss and deliberate on various issues relating to exams directly with PM Modi. Thousands of schools and lakhs of students from across the country will join the programme through video conferencing.
Twitter handle of the PM Modi @narendramodi on February 6 says “Share your thoughts as well as experiences about exams and ways to overcome stress with me on MyGov or the NM Modi App. I will answer your questions during the programme on 16th”.
Another tweet on the same day says: “My young friends, I am eager to interact with you on the 16th of this month. I will talk about the need to appear for exams without stress and the importance of staying happy during exams. Thousands of students from all over India will join the programme via technology”.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development had asked students to register and share their ideas or ask questions on the website www.mygov.in. As on February 11, the total submissions were 14,134. Select questions will be featured at the event.
All students from Class VI to XII of CBSE schools have been asked to watch Doordarshan, YouTube, or log on to the government websites to see the live telecast/ webcast of the programme. Circulars have gone out to the schools on February 8 to make necessary arrangements for the students to view/hear the programme. Schools have also been asked to upload/submit a report along with photographs or video of students viewing the telecast before February 17.
The programme comes on the heels of the release of the book “Exam Warriors” penned by the Prime Minister that was released on February 3. The 193-pg book published by Penguin Random House lists 25 mantras for students facing examinations. It is also available in a digital format on the Narendra Modi mobile app.
The PM is quoted in the book saying: “This book is for all students who are appearing for examinations. They are ‘exam warriors’- brave youngsters taking part in the festival of exams. There is no need to worry excessively or view it as a life and death situation.”
Though these measures can be viewed in a general perspective of the stress related to Board examinations, they gain more significance in the light of the fact that this is the first year that Class X students of CBSE will take the mandatory Board exam as the school-based examinations have been scrapped. Till 2017 students used to take these examinations based on the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) pattern with the marking based on the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Points Average). The correction, marking pattern, and grading were all done at the school level.
This year, students will write in an examination centre that will not be their school, the papers will be corrected by external examiners and the marking will be based on percentage. The internal assessment (from the school) will be for 20 marks for each subject (100 for 5 subjects) and the final examination will be for 80 marks each (400 for 5 subjects). This time the percentage from the total the student gets out of 500 will be calculated instead of CGPA.
The cut-off and other criteria for admission process to various groups in Standard XI are not yet clear.