Dubai: Over 8,000 students wrote the first test of the Grade 12 board exams for the Indian curriculum — Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — in the UAE on Tuesday.
According to figures provided by CBSE, Delhi, this year, in the entire Gulf region, a total of 14,637 students are appearing for the grade 12 exam and 18,494 who have opted for the grade 10 Board-conducted SA2 exams.
The new element in the CBSE papers is that students are required to answer 34 or 35 questions instead of the conventional 32 and most schools prepared hard during mocks to help students practise effective time management to answer more questions in the stipulated two hours.
The highlight of the Grade 12 exams this year is the decision taken by the CBSE board to declare results earlier to help students catch the admission deadlines in India especially, which close by June.
Dr Ashok Kumar, CEO of Indian High School (IHS), which has 514 students appearing for the board exam, told Gulf News: “The Indian High School is the examination centre for 736 students of Grade 10 and 628 students of Grade 12 from other schools as well. We hope for an outstanding performance by our students and this requires a team effort from the parents, teachers and the students and therefore preparation for it is also a concerted effort. We held a special assembly today where the Grade 12 students were especially addressed to imbue confidence and given last-minute coping tips to soothe their nerves. As it is throughout the year, teachers, supervisors and counsellors offer all the academic, moral and emotional support to the students and give them pep talks. Our staff is well trained to recognise signs of performance anxiety and help nervous students.”
Nervousness was writ large on faces of most students going into centres across the UAE in the morning as the curriculum has undergone drastic changes in the last one year and students were uncertain of what to expect. However, at 1pm, when they walked out from the centres, most looked happy and relieved. Indian High School students Therese Sudeep, Tanishtha Dastur, Fatma Ashraf, Anikta Jain and Shlok Misra were all happy with the way the paper was set that helped them answer questions with ease. “It went pretty well for me,” said student Dastur, who now has Business Studies next after a gap of a day.
Vyshak Satheesh, 17, a grade 12 student and head boy of the current batch of Grade 12 at Delhi Private School (DPS) Sharjah who appeared for his English exam, told Gulf News: “I wrote a good exam. The paper was set very well and all my classmates I met so far said they found the questions easy to tackle. Despite several changes made to the syllabus and methodology, our school had prepared us well on how to tackle those changes.” said Satheesh, who has to appear for his physics exam next Thursday.
Principal of DPS, Sharjah, Vandana Marwaha told Gulf News: “Nearly 500 plus students from DPS Sharjah and Dubai are appearing for the Grade 12 examinations and the number this year has gone up. At the Sharjah venue, which is an examination centre, we have 700 students appearing for examinations. We were happy that although this year the curriculum had changed from conceptual to application-oriented syllabus, the board gave us ample time by giving early update to the syllabus and to prepare the students and the teachers. We held several workshops in the last quarter to prepare the students and teachers. My advice to parents is that when students reach grade 12 they no longer need to be pushed to perform. What students need most is supportive and caring assistance to walk them through this tense time.”
Highlighting special facilities extended by the IHS examination centre, Dr Lalchand Pancholia, chairman of the IHS Board, said: “Like every year, we spared no effort in providing excellent facilities for the students who are appearing for the examination at our centre. We have provided well-lit and cooled rooms, made special provision for those requiring wheelchairs and with medical conditions like fractures, chickenpox, etc, and also taken care of candidates who are permitted scribes.”
