The CBSE is known for its rich imparting of education and innovation in learning teaching process and it’s student friendly approach when it comes to academic and co-curricular matters. During the Covid period the CBSE truly cared for its lakhs of students in India and abroad by giving priority to the safety of students taking measures like cancelling the examinations and going in for alternative methods to award marks to it’s candidates.
The boards foresightedness was much appreciated when it came out with the plan of two terms for classes tenth and twelfth this year – one in MCQ (objective) method and then a descriptive one later to avoid Covid-related issues.
However the boards current objective type exams have brought in a lot of criticism from the student community as the papers were found very tricky, confusing and ‘stress creating ‘ ones. Students of class twelfth had the shock of their life when the English paper really had them bewildered because of questions that were confusing and the option to be chosen, the students opine, were all similar and each answer was a value point in itself making the students very difficult to get the right one! Mathematics also had them tensed as it was lengthy and took time to get the answers! The problem was even raised in the parliament and request made to the education ministry to make evaluation liberal. The MP who raised a very genuine issue also urged the education ministry to consider making the evaluation process for the papers “liberal” in the interest of students who appeared for the exams. He also expressed anguish as the students were totally depressed and mentally down and this can even affect their future prospects also.
The board had gone for such innovations in the past too and though some of its novelties had gone well with the students some did not.
Now the boards experimentation of two semesters, as public examinations, and with difficult papers making the round undoubtedly has caused anxiety and apprehension among parents and students . The papers have caused a furore among the students, parents and teachers community spreading a sort of fear and panic and disappointment even among the very bright ones who are under severe pressure. Students who aimed for a centum now doubt whether they would be able to even score a pass mark in the subjects and what makes them more tensed is the fact that the board had announced earlier that in a future situation if Covid crisis becomes critical and the exam in April is cancelled then the first semester mark would be taken.
The students cry that that it would be tough time for them when the results come as they would have to sweat a lot to get high marks in the second semester exam, if there is one. They also may find it hard to compete with state syllabus scorers who definitely score more owing to a much easier set of questioning. What teachers and parents are worried about is that the boards new ideas and experimentation in question papers might definitely result in more number of students opting for the state syllabus in the plus 2 level in future .
