Several ICSE and CBSE schools have decided to conduct the pre-board examinations for Classes X and XII in December and finish it before the winter break.
This will give students time to revise the syllabus before the board exams while teachers will be able to conduct remedial classes.
Don Bosco School Park Circus, Calcutta Girls' High School, Sushila Birla Girls' School, St Augustine's Day School Shyamnagar, Delhi Public School New Town are some of the schools that will complete the pre-boards in December.
Indus Valley World School will finish Class XII pre-board exams in December. Pre-board exams for Class X will start in December but will end in January.
Earlier many of these institutes would conduct a few pre-board papers in December and the rest in January.
"If we finish pre-board exams in December, students will have more time to prepare for the board exams. For those who are not so academically strong, teachers can follow up on them a little more," said Father Bikash Mondal, principal, Don Bosco Park Circus.
Several schools said that since checking of papers is over before January, students can see the evaluation after the winter break and make an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.
It also gives students an uninterrupted period of study once the pre-board exams are over, a teacher said.
"The point of conducting a pre-board examination is to help students assess themselves. That means there has to be enough time for scaffolding so that there is an improvement in the boards," said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine's Day School Shyamnagar.
Many of the schools that will conduct the pre-boards in December will have the board practical exams for Class XII in January.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) had asked schools affiliated to it to schedule the Class XII practical exams between October 1, 2023 and January 31, 2024.
The CBSE schools will have the board practical exams in January.
"It is difficult to conduct both pre-boards and board practicals simultaneously so we thought of finishing the Class XII pre-board exams in December. Teachers will then be able to use the time after the practicals to clear students’ last-minute doubts," said Amita Prasad, director of Indus Valley World School (CBSE).
Koeli Dey, principal of Sushila Birla Girls' School, said that for some students a retest might have to be conducted.
"All that also takes time and can be done in January else it will move to February," she said.
The winter break generally spans two to four weeks from third week of December.
Last updated on 03 Dec 2023
