CBSE planning major changes in exam pattern
TESTING TIMES Focus will be on problem solving abilities
NEW DELHI: The Central
Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is set to overhaul school exam pattern.
While teachers back several changes, there are some that need to be looked at
more thoroughly before they are implemented.
School examination pattern and
composition are set to undergo an overhaul by the Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE). The teaching community has mixed reactions.
Questions
to test the problem solving abilities of the students will be included,
starting from 2013.
“This
will force children to come out of the rote-learning and test their application
and analytical skills,” said Usha Ram, principal, Laxman Public School.
CBSE’s
chairman, Vineet Joshi stated that the PSA system would evaluate quantitative
and qualitative reasoning and incorporate aspects such as creative thinking,
decisionmaking, problem solving and communication.
CBSE
will also allot 5% of every major subject, such as English, Hindi, mathematics
and physics, on questions pertaining to the cultural, environmental and social
ethos of the country.
“Our
existing educational system needs to be strengthened to deliver values
enshrined in the Constitution. The curriculum needs to assign more weightage to
value based questions,” said Ram Shankar, joint director, CBSE.
CBSE
also plans to implement the ‘open book testing’ method for classes 10 and 12
from the next academic session.
Teachers
said that this was a move that would require planning at not just the school
level, but university level too. It’ll require students to know their texts
well, teachers said.
“There has to be some connect between school and higher
education. Some re-thinking is required to bridge the gap between school and
college education,” said Ameeta Wattal, principal, Springdales (Pusa Road).