NCF 2023: How Does NCF Change the Class 10, 12 Board Exam System?

Class 10, 12 Board Exams Changes in NCF 2023: The National Steering Committee for National Curriculum Frameworks has created the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) following the principles of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Check here how the NCF 2023 approaches the Board Examinations and how it will impact students and schools in the coming years.

Class 10, 12 Board Exams Changes in NCF 2023: The National Steering Committee for National Curriculum Frameworks crafted the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) as per the vision of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Drafted based on the engagement of above 13 lakh students and parents, above 1.5 lakh teachers and educationists, 1550 + district-level consultations from 32 States and Union Territories and 35 groups of institutions, NCF SE aims to transform the Indian School Education System for the better. In this article, we will be swiftly highlighting the new approach to board exams as per NEP 2020 and NCF 2023.

NCF-SE 2023 and Board Exams

Ideally, board exams or exams of any kind should serve as both certification and learning experiences. However, currently, the board exam structure limits the holistic development of students and promotes memorisation and coaching culture instead. As per the National Curriculum Framework, board exams for classes 10 and 12 cause extreme stress in students. Currently, board examinations are impacting students’ mental well-being negatively. As of now, board exams are leaning more towards the side of being a burden. It is a high-pressure event for students with limited scope for improvement after a not-so-satisfactory performance. 

Key Points from NCF 2023 for Board Exams 

Related: National Curriculum Framework Timeline: All NCFs Published Till Now

The approach of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education towards Classes 10, 12 Board Exam into two parts – Current Challenges and the Changes to be made in the board exam pattern.

Current Challenges

A Stress

Why do board exams cause stress in students and their families?

1. Social factors. Many see Board exam performance as a measure of a student’s value and consider these exams life-changing milestones.
2. High stakes. Board results impact college admissions and more, given the scarcity of quality Higher Education Institutions.
3. No second chances. Current Board exams offer no chance for improvement if a student performs poorly due to one bad day, as exams happen just once a year.
4. Nature of examinations. Since most such examinations tend to test rote learning, remembering and reproducing the book-ish texts cause a lot of stress as it is far more difficult than responding to something that is assessing genuine understanding.
5. Other influences. There is an ecosystem with commercial interests that creates artificial competitive pressures around Board examinations, hoping to benefit by offering coaching and tutoring services.\

B Rote Learning vs Genuine Understanding

1. Exams at the end of Grades 10 and 12 check how well students learned different subjects. They’re meant to see if students met the learning goals, but many Board exams find it hard to do this properly and consistently.
2. Board exams mostly check if students can remember facts they learned, but they should be testing more. Since these exams often just focus on memorisation, they miss out on testing a wide range of skills. This gives an incomplete or wrong view of what students actually learned. Also, the way these exams are graded isn’t always clear, leading to differences in how they’re evaluated and questions about fairness.

Thus, there remain serious concerns over the validity and reliability of these tests at the current time.

Changes in Board Examinations

Related: NCF 2023 Overview and Highlights

The burden on the students from the existing content overload of the curriculum is heightened by the current approach to the Board examinations. 

Thus, NCF-SE suggests the following changes in the board exam system of the nation to improve it in the best interest of our students and the country’s progress:

1. Exam to Check Competency and Learning Outcomes: Board examinations should assess the achievement of Competencies for the Secondary Stage as stated in the Curriculum. These examinations should provide a valid and reliable picture of student performance as per the Competencies in the Curriculum.

2. Reducing the burden of Board Exams: The burden of Board examinations on students must be reduced through multiple actions:

i) Making them easier and lighter with significantly reduced content load

ii) Focussing sharply on Competencies rather than recounting facts

iii) Offering the same examination at least twice a year, so that students have an option to take the exam a second time and improve

iv) In the long term, all Boards should change to semester or term-based systems, where students can test in a subject as soon as they have completed the subject, which would further reduce the content load being tested in any one examination.

3. Assessing the Achievement of Competencies: It is the responsibility of Boards of Examination to design and implement fair, reliable, and valid testing processes and instruments to assess the achievement of the articulated Competencies and certify students on the basis of this achievement. 

Articulation of Competencies is the responsibility of the appropriate academic authority (e.g., NCERT or SCERT).

4. Board Exams Twice A Year: 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.

5. Holistic Development and Assessment Process: Much of the assessment in Vocational Education, Art Education, Physical Education and Well-being will have to be demonstration-based and not written-exam-based. It is recommended that 75% of weightage in overall certification be given to such demonstration-based assessment, and only 25% to any written examination. 

Boards will also need to design and implement high-quality systems that can locally (at the school) assess the basis of demonstration. This will need to be independent from the school, yet operationally feasible.

Science and other subjects also need to have a demonstration-based assessment, e.g. conducting experiments. This should have 20-25% weightage in the overall certification of the subject. This kind of assessment currently happens but needs significant improvement for validity and objectivity.

Selection of test developers, reviewers, translators, and evaluators for Board Examinations should be based on a rigorous process based on detailed guidelines. Boards of Examination should ensure that all test developers, reviewers, and evaluators go through formal University-certified courses on test development before they begin this work. In addition, there should be ongoing capacity building of test developers, evaluators, and reviewers to support them in the design of high-quality test instruments.

6. Written Test Development Process: Test development processes for written examinations should be significantly streamlined. Some illustrative steps to streamline the process are given below:

i create assessment frameworks that detail the Competencies, Learning Outcomes and content domains to be assessed.

ii Designing a blueprint based on the assessment framework including details of Competencies, Learning Outcomes and content domains to be tested, the format of test items (e.g., MCQs, short written answers, others), length of the test, and marking schemes.

iii Designing good-quality test items and scoring guides of two kinds — Selected Response questions (e.g., MCQs, True/False) where students must select the correct response from the options provided and Constructed Response questions where the student must develop the correct response.

iv Rigorous review procedures should be ensured and marking schemes should also be reviewed along with test items.

v Boards of examination should ensure periodic, rigorous reviews of the quality of test instruments designed.

Also Check: NCF 2023 Approach to Assessment: What Are the NCF Assessment Principles?