October 21, 2013, 12:50 pm
Starting a new system of examinations, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has told schools across the country to implement open book examinations from March 2014 and has also released study material for the same.
The Open Text Based Assessment (OTBA) will first begin for classes IX and XI from the academic session 2013-14. For Class IX, study material has been released for all main subjects including English, Hindi, mathematics, science and social science, and for class XI, the material is for geography, economics and biology. OTBA will be applicable only to these subjects in the next session .
However, open book examination doesn’t mean that students will be allowed to carry textbooks inside the examination hall. CBSE’s version of open book implies that students will be informed four months in advance about the study material on which the exam would be conducted.
The main reason behind implementing this new system is to strengthen students’ analytical and theoretical skills by moving away from the trend of rote learning.
The Board has also reworked the marks distribution to accommodate OTBA scores in the main subject marks. The question papers in main subjects under Summative Assessment (SA)-II will be of 90 marks (70 marks for English and 20 marks for assessment of speaking and listening skills) based on prescribed syllabus and question paper design. The question paper in each main subject will have a separate section (10 marks) for OTBA.
