The proposed twice-a-year CBSE examination system may offer several advantages. If the first exams for Class X are held, say, in November-Dececember 2024 and the next set in February-March 2025 as proposed, it will offer not only flexibility for students but, primarily, help take away the fear of failure in a one-shot final examination around the results of which their careers and lives will depend.
Those who do well enough in the first exam can even skip the second, though the chances are that they will take the opportunity to try and improve their performance. Seen from the school-leaving students’ point of view, this will be an ideal arrangement. with those in Class XII of 2025-26 to be the first to pass out under the new system
The bi-annual twin exams carry negative implications too. Unlike in a semester system, students will have to prepare for the career-defining exams twice in their last year in school even if it would have helped that they would have had experience of appearing in the exams twice.
The well-intentioned proposal may lead to some unintended consequences, but there will always be time to do some fine-tuning in terms of defining school schedules and adding extra days of study if they would be useful as all the Class XII portion may have to be covered in a shorter time than in the old system of conducting one exam in February-March.
In doing away with the do-or-die feeling that seizes lakhs of students as they approach the school finals each year under the unitary exam system, a healthier approach to learning and adapting to taking tests can be offered to the young scholars.
Of course, only a change of attitude in the teacher as well as the student towards incorporating the promotion of critical thinking, problem-solving, and practical application of knowledge can help transform the education scene.
The teachers and those who sustain the examination system would have to work twice as hard to make the two-exam cycle that is to come with the New Education Policy productive for their wards. It is also clear that management of stress in students must play a far greater role in schools in the modern age which offers distractions aplenty for young minds.
There is much to do to get the new exam system off the ground. The basic premises of stress relief, holistic assessment, and comprehensive evaluation in two exams are sound.
