CBSE should end board-exams in 4-weeks to prevent leaks: Panel
A committee formed by the Human Resource Development ministry has said limiting the board exams to four weeks might prevent question paper leaks of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The board offers 168 courses in Class 12 and 70 in Class 10, which is why exams stretch for over seven weeks. However, reducing the time-span will mean a lot of logistical juggling.
How will that work? A committee member explains
One way to go about this is to conduct exams of courses which have very few takers in those students' school itself, said an official. For example, there were only three students who opted for Musical Production and one who took Fundamentals of Nursing in 2018. Conducting tests of these students before others can help to complete the board exam in a month.
Looking at other ideas the panel has
Another suggestion given by the committee to reduce leaks was to doubly encrypt the question paper. "Logistics of electricity, printers and manpower will be taken care of," the official added. He also suggested water-marking papers depending on the centers. In case a paper is leaked, it would be easier to identify the source. VS Oberoi, former secretary of HRD, headed the seven-member panel.
Will CBSE follow the ICSE route?
The panel also discussed whether CBSE should follow the ICSE and IB route of allowing students to pick only pre-determined baskets of subjects, instead of any permutation and combination. In other boards, students can choose from 30-35 such assemblage of subjects.
CBSE left red-faced after paper leak of Class 12
The panel was formed in April, after the Economics paper of Class 12 and Mathematics of Class 10 were leaked, leaving the CBSE red-faced. Though a re-test was held for Class 12, the board decided against re-examination of the junior class. The committee was tasked with reviewing aspects of security checks and give suggestions to prevent such mishaps in the future.
