The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday announced a special assessment scheme for class 10 and 12 board exams for next year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, splitting the academic session into two terms.

The board has also announced plans to rationalise the syllabus for 2021-22 academic session and to make the internal assessment and project work more "credible" and "valid".

As per an official order by Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academic), CBSE, the term one exams will be held in November-December, 2021 while the second term exams will be conducted in March-April, 2022.

"The syllabus for the academic session 2021-22 will be divided into two terms by following a systematic approach by looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics by the Subject Experts," he said.

"The Board will conduct examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus. This has been done to increase the probability of having a board conducted classes X and XII examinations at the end of the academic session," he said.

The syllabus for the board examination 2021-22 will be rationalised similar to that of the last academic session to be notified in July 2021.

Schools will also use alternative academic calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum.

"Efforts will be made to make internal assessment, practical, project work more credible and valid as per the guidelines and moderation policy to be announced by the board to ensure fair distribution of marks," he added.

The plans by the board come against the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic which forced the cancellation of board exams of some subjects last year and complete cancellation of board exams this year.