Hyderabad: Thanks to Telangana’s minister for education Sabitha Indra Reddy, lakhs of students who will be taking examinations in a few months have some good news – you will not have to write 11 exams, which have now been reduced to only six. Additionally, she has also decided to give students 30 minutes of extra time to write the answers.
On Wednesday, the education department formally announced changes to the pattern of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, scheduled for May this year.
According to the new format, students will have to write six papers instead of the usual 11, after the state government reduced the number of question papers, as a one-time measure for the academic year of 2020-21. This would mean that students will have to take only one question paper for each subject.
The examinations will be held for 600 marks, including 480 marks for board exams and 120 for internals, that is, an average of two formative assessments. There will be no change in the existing weightage of marks (80) for final examination and 20 marks for formative assessment for all six papers.
“As part of the new six question paper pattern, paper-I and paper-II of first language, English, mathematics, general science (physical science and biology) and social studies will be merged into a single paper, instead of two papers for each subject. There will be no change in the second language paper,” the government notification read.
The duration of the SSC examinations has also been increased by half an hour this year, that is, from 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours and 15 minutes. There will also be more choices of questions provided in each question paper.
