The CBSE will conduct competency-based assessments in Classes V and VIII in all its affiliated schools next year, the chairman of the board said on Friday.

The assessments were conducted in around 9,000 schools in 2024-25.

In 2025-26, it will be mandatory in all 30,100 CBSE schools.

“We have been trying in spirit, in line with the recommendations of the NEP, to carry out a structured assessment of children at key stages of learning.... This year, we conducted an assessment roughly in 9,000 schools across the country. Next year, we are planning to make it... mandatory for all schools,” Rahul Singh, chairman, CBSE, told principals at the 30th National Annual Conference of Sahodaya School Complexes 2024 on Friday.

“This will give us feedback about the levels of learning that each school is able to instil in the child and also track the progress.... It is our endeavour and hope that over the next two to three years, once we have the data with the timelines, we can assist the schools in devising very specific, targeted programmes for the competency attainment of children,” said Singh.

This would mean an enhancement of the capacities of teachers, he said.

For Class V, the competency-based assessment will be in English, math and environmental science, a CBSE official said. For VIII, the assessment will be in science, math and English.

“(Through this) We are assessing the students’ competency, whether they have an understanding of the subject,” Singh said on the sidelines.

This year, it was a computer-based assessment.

“Those schools that do not have adequate infrastructure will have a pen-and-paper option, otherwise it will be a computer-based exam. Ultimately it will be computer-based (for all),” Singh said on the sidelines of the conference

A CBSE official later told The Telegraph that the idea of these assessments is to make it “stress-free” for students

“This is a competency-based, diagnostic assessment where each question is aligned to different competencies. This is not a qualifying or a certifying assessment,” the official told this newspaper

The students are not given individual reports but the school is provided with a report of a particular grade, the official said. Students in many schools in Bengal took the assessment in the current academic session.

“The competency-based assessment helps students shift from rote learning. This will help them developanalytical skills,” said Sunita Arora, the principal of Delhi Public School, Howrah, and joint secretary of Kolkata Sahodaya.