Sections of educationists and parents have opposed the National Curriculum Framework’s (NCF) proposal to conduct board exams twice a year for students.
As of now, the board exams are conducted for the students of classes 10 and 12 for Central or State board curriculum. According to the final NCF, all students will be allowed to take board exams on at least two occasions during any given school year, with only the best score being retained. The NCF has also recommended that in the long term, all boards should change to semester or term-based systems, where students can be tested in a subject as soon as they have completed the subject, which would reduce the content load being tested in any one examination.
However, some educationists stated that the NCF proposals are unscientific and there is no clarity and is creating lot of confusion among the teachers, students and parents.
V.P. Niranjanaradhya, developmental educationist said, “The NCF talks about periodic assessments in the place of annual board examinations. The idea of comprehensive and continuous evaluation was proposed way back in NCF in 2005 and the same was mandated under section 29 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Unfortunately, the people who framed this curriculum acted symmetrically opposite in 2019 by amending the constitution by introducing annual exams for class V and VIII.”
“The new NCF talks many things in the air without any organic linkage to achieve the same. As we know, the current education system is dominated by exams and assessments. To replace this, we need a more child /student-centric system that needs overhaul changes in the system. The problem of examinations cannot be addressed in isolation. We need to address the learning process, methodology, teachers’ preparation, teachers’ recruitment and the very approach to construction of knowledge. Many of these perspectives are missing,” he explained.
The Karnataka Associated Management of Schools (KAMS) has decided to file an objection to the Ministry of Education in this regard. Shashikumar. D., General Secretary for KAMS said, “There is no any clarity. I don’t think the stakeholders are considered to frame these proposals..”
“Conducting board exams twice a year will be creating lot of exam pressure among students and it will kill the creativity and extra curricular activities like sports, cultural activities and others among the students. Children will become a machine of delivering marks. Directly or indirectly, the parents will also be pressurised,” Ravichandra, a parent said.
However, with the withdrawal of the NEP in Karnataka, implementation of the NCF proposals in the state curriculum has come under question.
“All of this is part of NEP and we are already aware that the government has made an announcement about this. We have already introduced the second supplementary for class 12 students and this is the first time in the country. The supplementary exam is not only for the failed students but for improvement also. If the students are not interested in retaining the marks of the particular board exam, they can withdraw the result, take the supplementary exam and improve their marks. So, anybody can take the supplementary exam,” said Riteshkumar Singh, Principal Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy.
