To reduce exam stress, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked schools to provide Class 9 and 10 students 30 minutes extra time to complete their exams.
At present these students are allowed three hours to write their exams. Henceforth they will have another half hour.
The CBSE believes this will help the students concentrate more on the questions and write answers at their own pace.
In a circular issued to all schools on August 2, Mr M.C. Sharma, controller of examinations, CBSE, said schools needed to have flexible timings for exams in order to cater to the different pace at which students responded to questions.
Timing for the exam may vary from three to three-and-a-half hours, depending on the student’s ability to answer the question paper, said the circular.
Last year, the CBSE had introduced various examination reforms, including continuous and comprehensive evaluation. However, several students had opposed it stating that it increased pressure instead of reducing their workload.
Pointing out that students studying in Classes 9 and 10 would be internally tested during exams, Mr Sharma said the syllabus and question paper design in different subjects for summative assessment will be the same as the one circulated by the board earlier.
“This will be done in the form of a pen-paper test conducted by the schools themselves,” he said. “In order to ensure standardisation and uniformity in the question paper bank for different subjects the board would be sending it by September 10.”