The CBSE announces new rules for the 2021-22 academic year, with each term covering 50% of the syllabus

The board exams for the 2021 batch will now be held in two terms with 50 percent of the syllabus in each term

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday announced a special assessment scheme for Class 10 and 12 board exams in 2021-22. The board exams for the 2021 batch will now be held in two terms with 50 percent of the syllabus being covered in each term.

The top education body also announced that the syllabus for Classes 10 and 12 for 2021-22 will be rationalised, and it will be announced by July end.

The syllabus for the academic session 2021-22 is divided into two terms by following a systematic approach while evaluating the interconnections between concepts and topics under the supervision of Subject Experts, and the board will conduct examinations at the end of each term based on the bifurcated syllabus.

The syllabus for the board examination 2021-22 will be rationalised like the last academic session. It will be announced in July 2021.  CBSE schools will follow the curriculum and syllabus released by CBSE on 31 March, however. Also, schools will use alternative academic calendars and receive curriculum input from the NCERT.

In order to ensure fair distribution of marks, efforts will be made to make Internal Assessment/ Practical/ Project work more credible and valid as per the guidelines and moderation policy to be announced by the Board.

Two board exams

• We will be having two board exams – known as Term-I and Term-II exams, respectively – and each of them will cover 50 percent of the syllabus.
• The Term I paper will only consist of MCQs and will be 90 minutes long, and the Term II paper will be 2 hours long and have a variety of questions. (If the condition does not permit a normal descriptive exam, a 90 minute MCQ-based exam will be given at the end of Term II).
• The CBSE will set the questions and send them to the schools along with a marking scheme.
• A CBSE-appointed external center superintendent and a CBSE-appointed observer will supervise the exams.
• Marks of both Terms I and II will be contributed to the final overall score of students.
• The term-I will be held in November, December while the term-II will be held in March-April.
• The term-I paper will have MCQs including case-based MCQs and assertion-reasoning type MCQs, however, paper-II will have questions on different formats.

CBSE curriculum transaction

• The schools will continue teaching in the distance mode until the authorities permit in-person instruction.
• For classes 9 and 10, internal assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) would include the three periodic tests, student enrichment, portfolio and practical work/speaking listening activities/project.
• For Classes 11 and 12, internal assessment (throughout the year-irrespective of Term I and II) would include end of topic or unit tests/exploratory activities/practicals/ projects.
• Schools would create a student profile for all assessment undertaken over the year and retain the evidences in digital format.
• CBSE will facilitate schools to upload marks of internal assessment on the CBSE IT platform.
• Guidelines for internal assessment for all subjects will also be released along with the rationalized term-wise divided syllabus for the session 2021-22. The Board would also provide additional resources like sample assessments, question banks, teacher training etc. for more reliable and valid internal assessments.