The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in New Delhi has created confusion among students, parents and school management by keeping the option open for students who would want to sit for Grade 10th board examination, the principal of the International India School in Damaman (IISD) said this week Muhammad Shaffee said that at one point the CBSE, which introduced grading system, has done away with board examination for Grade 10 students and instructed schools to introduce formative and summative examinations. The school would carry out the evaluation of answer sheets for such examinations, he said. “We are still confused over the new system that the CBSE has introduced and waiting a clarification from the board whether or not there would be board examination for 10th Grade students,” he said. However, the school has been collecting forms from the students who want to take the board examination. “By doing so we want to keep our data ready at the school and once things get cleared from the CBSE, we will act accordingly,” he said. Manzar Jamal Siddiqui, principal of the International Indian School in Riyadh (IISR), said that about 100 out of 1,000 Grade 10 students have opted to take the 2010-2011 board examination. The students in these international Indian schools, affiliated with CBSE who teach only up to 10th Grade, have no other choice but to sit for the board examination. Basically, he said, there wouldn't be any difference whatever type of question papers are given for both examinations – CBSE board or those conducted by the schools, he said. He said the students and their parents should not get confused over the pattern of examination. Moreover, he added, sitting for the CBSE board examination is not mandatory anymore.. The only difference would be in the evaluation of answer sheets, he said. The school would send the answer sheets to New Delhi for the students who would sit for the CBSE board examination. In the case of students who would sit for the examination conducted by the school management, the evaluation of answer sheet would be done here, he said. “Both students would receive transfer certificate (TC) with marking as ‘promoted to 11th Grade', which is acceptable to any education board of the respective states in India,” he said. It would up to the students and their parents to decide which form of examination they would opt for, he said. The students who would not take the board examination could sit for formative and summative examination conducted by the school. In the formative examination, the assessment would be done to evaluate and grade class work, homework, assignment and project work. Each evaluation will carry 10 marks, The assessment of Summative Examination is based on the term-end. There will be two evaluations each in the first and second terms conducted by CBSE. The first term-end exam will carry 20 marks and the second term-end exam will carry 40 marks. But, according to a media report, CBSE has put an end to the confusion regarding class XI admissions and has spelled out its admission formula. The report said the 9-Point Grading Scheme, introduced during the 2009-2010 board examination, would be the basis for allocation of streams in class XI.
