Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) will conduct board exams for classes 9 and 11 from the 2023-24 academic year. Around 15 lakh students from these two classes will be taking the exam this year in the State.
The board currently conducts annual examinations for classes 10 and 12 and assessment examinations for classes 5 and 8. Learning can be strengthened and learning levels better monitored if the board holds Summative Assessment (SA)-2 for class 9 students and annual examinations for class 11 students as well, believes the Department of School Education and Literacy.
The board will conduct the SA-2 examination at the school level for class 9 and the annual examination at college level for class 11.
Centrally set papers
The board will prepare the question papers at the state level, and the question papers for class 9 will be sent to a secure online account of the Block Education Officer (BEO) concerned. For class 11, question papers will be sent to the login of the Deputy Director of Pre-University (DDPUs) concerned.
The BEOs and DDPUs will download the question papers on examination day, print the papers according to the number of students and send them to the schools, maintaining confidentiality and security. Teachers from nearby schools will be invigilators for class 9, while for class 11, the lecturers of respective colleges will be invigilators.
The evaluation of class 9 answer sheets will be conducted at the taluk level, and the evaluation of class 11 answer sheets will be in the colleges. Finally, the results of the students will be uploaded on the ‘Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS)’ portal by the Head Masters and Principals.
However, there is no detention of any student of class 9 in the examination. Supplementary examinations are conducted at the respective college level for the students who have failed in the class 11 annual examination.
Better learning outcome
Speaking to The Hindu, Gopalakrishna. H.N., Director (Exams) KSEAB, said, “Earlier, these examinations were held at the school and college level, and there was no uniformity in the question paper. It was not known whether the teachers had completed the syllabus. It affected the learning process of students. Therefore, the government has entrusted us to conduct the exams for classes 9 and 11 this academic year onwards. In a few days model question paper will be released and sent to all the schools and will also be published on the board website. The board will also announce the schedule of class 9 and 11 examination soon.”
He said it was part of the government’s effort to improve the quality of education. “The board will verify the data of results uploaded on SATS by the Head Masters and Principals. Then it will also check which schools, taluks and districts are lagging behind, and a report will be submitted to the government on how standards can be improved,” he said.
