NAGPUR: Life has come a full circle, literally, for CBSE as it reverts to the traditional board exam system for Std X students with effect from 2017-18 academic session. Though the decision had been made public in December itself, details of the new marking system were released late on Tuesday evening. The biggest changefor the students appearing for Std X board exams in summer of 2018 will be that they will have to prepare for entire syllabus, as compared to their immediate predecessors, who had to tackle only the second half of textbooks.

A senior CBSE official said, "Under Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme, we had the semester pattern due to which students have to prepare for only 50% of the syllabus." Next summer, CBSE Std X students will have the 80-20 (board-internal) marks pattern, something which their Maharashtra state board counterparts have. In the five mandatory subjects (language 1 & 2, science, math and social science), the students will have to score a minimum of 33% in each separately.

The revamped board exam system will come as a major relief to those students who shift to state board in Std XI. For the last five years, the state board has been demanding a letter from the respective principal certifying that the applicant indeed appeared for the traditional board exam, rather than the school-based option. Another headache for schools used to be providing a marksheet as opposed to the 'gradesheet' which the CBSE awarded to students.

A principal said, "State board officials need marks to tabulate the merit ranking for Std XI admissions and the CBSE would issue the same only for Maharashtra. Schools would get access to this list and we would have the logistical headache to pass it on to students." The marksheet to be issued in 2018 will have both marks and grades mentioned so that students face no problem in admission to state board junior colleges.

Full implications of the change at the school-level will be clear in the coming weeks but many anticipate that teachers' workload will lessen. A principal said, "Paperwork and clerical routine will lessen specifically but not to a great extent. In the internal assessment, there is still a lot legwork to be done with conducting of period tests and then subject enrichment activities. The co-scholastic schedule continues as it is and that does account for majority of the paperwork."

Another principal said, "Whatever decision is taken must be stuck with. It's
dangerous to keep changing the education format every five or six years. Here the gestation period is very long so a lot of thought and great deal of patience is required. Hopefully, we will stick with the modified format for at least a decade before assessing it," she said.