Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Educationists, teachers and psychiatrists in the city say that if Class 10 and 12 Board examinations are conducted twice a year, it will lessen the burden on students, reduce exam stress and help curb suicides.
The Union education ministry launched the New Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SF) on Wednesday. It proposes conducting board examinations twice a year and allowing the students to retain the best score. The choice of subjects in Classes 11 and 12 will not be restricted to streams and the students will have the right to pick and choose.
Also, they will need to study two languages, one of which has to be an Indian tongue. BN Trishal, an educationist, told Free Press that NEP 2020 aims at flexibility in the choice of subjects and in the examination pattern and the NCF-SF in line with that.
“The decision is in favour of students. We don’t want students to fail,” he said. Trishal said that twice-a-year exams will mean that if a student is not able to perform well in one exam due to illness, death in family or any other reason, she will get a second chance.
Principal at Sardar Patel Public School and CBSE master trainer and counsellor, Rajesh Kumar Sharma said that under the new system, the students won’t need to mug up the entire syllabus.
And even if she fails in one exam, she would not be required to waste one full year, he said. “Moreover, the students will get more time to prepare for competitive examinations,” Sharma said, adding that the new arrangement would be like the semester system already in place in universities and institutions of higher learning.
Dr Satyakant Trivedi, a consultant psychiatrist, is of the view that twice-a-year examinations will lead to students studying the year round instead of beginning preparations a few months before the annual examinations. “That often leads to stress.
Reducing the burden on students will reduce their stress and will lead to a drop in cases of students slipping into depression or suffering from anxiety or even ending their life,” he said.
If the syllabus is divided into two parts - one for each examination - it could enable the teachers to go for more in-depth teaching, said Arpana Naroli, a teacher at Government Subhash Excellence School adding that “it should also extend the syllabus so that students could prepare for competitive exams simultaneously.”
“As for the insistence on studying at least one Indian language, it is a welcome move. We should be proud of our languages. After all, if you go to France or Germany or Japan to study, you have to first learn their language,” Trishal added.
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