If you thought that board exams were something you needed to deal with just twice in your academic days, you might want to reconsider that thought. Not just class 10 and 12, ICSE students of class 5 and 8 will also have to appear for board exams from 2018.
The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations has said that the board exams for class 5 and 8 students will be compulsory, but will not have an effect on the promotion of students to the next class. The exams are mostly to judge the progress of the students.
"It will be just a periodical evaluation exercise to have an idea on the progress of the students' learning after a particular level," Hindustan Times quoted council CEO Gerry Arathoon as saying.
The students will be tested on English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies and the questions will be in multiple choice format. "In the Class 5 and 8 board examinations, the answer papers of the students of one school will be evaluated by teachers of another school, as it happens in case of the final class 10 level examination," he added.
CISCE also plans to draw up separate reports on each subject and will give these out to the school as well as parents. However, Arathoon did mention that students will not need some extra preparation for these exams and the questions will be the usual ones from the syllabus.
"The test will be aptitude-based and will try to assess the ability and understanding of a student to apply the lessons learnt, solve the problems and think creatively," The Times of India quoted Arathoon as saying.
"Data available through the assessment will give better support to students, give insight to parents about the performance of their children, keep a tab on the progress of the student and also help students identify career dimensions that align with their interests and academic strengths."
The papers are likely to be of one hour each and the test will be held on separate days and trained teachers will assess these papers.
The CISCE also plans to introduce Sanskrit, Yoga and Performing Arts as compulsory subjects. While Yoga and Performing Arts will be compulsory from class one to eight, Sanskrit will be a part of the syllabus from classes five to eight.
