Board examinations will be conducted twice a year and students will get an option to retain their best score, according to the New Curriculum Framework prepared by the Ministry of Education.
Aiming to make the exams “easier” rather than “high stakes”, the boards have also been asked to develop capacities to be able to conduct “on-demand” examinations in due course of time.
The New Curriculum Framework (NCF) document accessed by PTI also noted that there should be no hard separations between Arts and Sciences, curricular and extra-curricular activities, and vocational and academic streams.
“Board examinations should be offered at least twice a year to ensure that students have enough time and opportunity to perform well. Students can then appear for a board examination in subjects they have completed and feel ready for.
“This process could be made possible through the creation of a comprehensive test item bank which can be used to create tests using suitable software. This will enable the move towards a system of on-demand examinations in the near future as described in NEP 2020,” the NCF stated.
Class 9-10 students to study two Indian languages: Students in class 9 and 10 will now have to mandatorily study three languages including two Indian native ones while students in classes 11-12 will have to study one Indian and one other language, according to the New Curriculum Framework (NCF).
NCF has been prepared according to the new National Education Policy (NEP) by the national steering committee, headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan.
At present, class 9 and 10 students study two mandatory languages and class 11 and 12 students study one language.
So far, the students from 9 to 12 had to mandatorily study five subjects with an option of adding one additional subject.
According to the recommendations made in NCF, the number of mandatory subjects will be seven for classes 9-10 and six for classes 11-12.
“Language across stages will help students develop democratic and epistemic values, and dispositions of respect for culture and diversity in society (‘cultural literacy’),” said the NCF document accessed by PTI.
“Learning more than one language will broaden students’ horizons and learning another Indian language will enable a deeper connection with the country and develop a sense of pride and belonging to the country,” it added.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan handed over the NCF to the NCERT on Wednesday during the joint meeting of the National Oversight Committee (NOC) and National Syllabus and Teaching-Learning Material Committee (NSTC), thereby paving the way for the development of the school syllabus and textbooks.
According to the curricular structure define in NCF for classes 9 and 10, all schools need to offer three languages and “at least two of which are native to India”.
Currently, for classes 11 and 12 study of only one language is mandatory.
“For classes 11 and 12, students need to study two subjects from Language Education (called Group 1), at least one of which must be a language native to India. Literature subjects are also contained in Language Education at this level,” the document said.
Changing the nomenclature of the current secondary and senior secondary into one secondary stage divided into two phases – classes IX and X, and classes XI and XII, the NCF recommends “four years of multidisciplinary study” across all curricular areas.