CBSE recommends making board exams for Grade 10 mandatory

New Delhi: Board exams for Grade 10 are set to become compulsory for all CBSE students from 2018 as the CBSE’s governing body on Tuesday “unanimously approved” a proposal in this regard.

The members agreed that from the academic session 2017-18, compulsory board exams should be introduced for all students of Grade 10, Indian newspapers reported Tuesday.

The first exam will be conducted in March 2018. It has been decided that the weightage division will be 80 per cent board-based and 20 per cent will be internal assessments.

Since 2011, after the introduction of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in 2009, the board made the Grade 10 Board exam optional, which means students studying in senior secondary schools had the option to sit for the school-based exam.

The decision will now have to be approved by the government before it is implemented. Currently, it is optional for CBSE students to choose either the board exam or a school-based examination.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has in the past favoured making board exams compulsory for CBSE students as is the practice at all state boards.

The sources said there is a view that for the Grade 10 board exams, 80 per cent weightage will be given to the marks scored in examinations while 20 per cent weightage will be given to the school-based evaluation.

In another key decision, the CBSE has decided to recommend to the HRD ministry that the three-language formula, under which Hindi, English and modern Indian language are taught, should be extended to Grades 9 and 10 as well from the current 6th to 8th, a source said.

Officials added that the board also favoured sending a recommendation to the centre that those languages which are listed in schedule VIII of the Constitution should be taught under the ‘Three language formula’ while languages which are “purely foreign” should be a “fourth language as an elective subject.”

In the past the HRD ministry-run Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) used to offer German as a third language, but the practice was later discontinued. The final call on these decisions will be taken by the government, a senior official said.