The recent decision of the Central government to reintroduce the class X exam in the country’s 18,417 schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), is a step in the right direction. This was announced on November 14 by Union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar, who said that the board’s class X examination would become mandatory from the academic year 2017-18. Javadekar added that state governments will also be permitted to reintroduce class V and VIII examinations at their option.

Since CBSE is the country’s largest pan-India examinations board and is administered by the HRD ministry, the great majority of the country’s 31 state boards are likely to follow suit. The autonomous Delhi-based Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) — another pan-India school examinations board — didn’t discontinue its class X ICSE examination in 2011. 

While there are arguments in favour of sparing mid-teen students the stress and pain of board exams as is normative in several developed countries such as Finland, it must be remembered that ground realities in India are vastly different. Our school education system needs periodic assessment and public examinations are necessary to measure learning outcomes because the quality of teaching and teachers in the country’s 1.40 million primary-secondary schools varies widely, and therefore self-certification by schools is unreliable. 

In 2011, prompted by the HRD ministry, CBSE took a historic decision to scrap the class X board exams and replaced it with a continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system of year-round testing and grading of students. Writing the class X board exams became optional. The argument advanced in favour of abolition of the class X board exam at the time was that students experienced enormous stress, resulting in a spate of suicides in this vulnerable community of mid-teens.

At the time the proposal to abolish the class X exam was welcomed because a large number of students were unable to cope with the intense pressure placed on their young shoulders. Therefore optionalisation of the exam and its replacement by CCE, coupled with a no-detention until class VIII provision under s.16 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, were welcomed as progressive initiatives. But since then it’s become clear that continuous testing resulted in greater — rather than reduced — strain for students in classes IX-X. Moreover, the no-detention until class VIII provision of the RTE Act, 2009 removed the fear of detention among primary school children, adversely impacting learning outcomes in primary education countrywide. 

Admittedly, a healthy, less taxing environment is necessary for joyful learning and optimal growth and development of young minds. But the need for an education system that periodically monitors and measures learning outcomes was not served by CCE. Moreover, discontinuation of the class X board exam merely served to postpone the stress to the class XII school-leaving exam. Indeed the combined effect of no-detention, and the class X boards being made optional was that it not only diminished the competitive spirit of students during their class I-X years, but also resulted in large cohorts of students being thoroughly unprepared for the crucial class XII examinations whose results determine college and university admission. 

In turn, with large numbers of under-prepared students entering higher education institutions, the latter are forced to lower teaching-learning standards. Moreover it’s now clear that the class X boards served the dual purpose of a qualifying examination to decide a suitable stream — arts, science, commerce — for higher secondary studies as also to assess preparedness for Plus Two education. 

The incumbent BJP/NDA government at the Centre has introduced several initiatives to raise academic standards in education, which should be supported in the national interest. It has rightly identified “education, skills and job creation” as the top priorities of the country. The decision to re-introduce class X board examinations in CBSE schools is certain to inspire all examination boards across the country to do likewise. It will have the beneficial effect of reigniting the spirit of healthy competition, usher in much-needed rigour and help children to be prepared for the challenges of higher secondary education and beyond. 
 

(Monica Malhotra Kandhari is managing director of the MBD Group, one of India’s largest education books publishing houses)