CBSE releases Term-1 date sheet, exams for major subjects to begin from Nov 30 – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Nearly 50% of the 36 lakh students for the CBSE’s Class X and XII final exams will write their exam in their own schools, the Board announced on Monday. The exams for the minor subjects will begin on November 16, while the major subjects will start on November 30, 2021. This is for the first time the CBSE will be conducting the Board exams in two phases — Term 1 and 2. The Board is also increasing the number of exam centres from 7,000 to 14,000.

The number of registered candidates has increased by nearly 4 lakh this year. While around 22 lakh candidates are expected to take the OMR-based MCQ Term 1 of the Class X exams, around 14 lakh have registered for the Term 1 of the Class XII final.

CBSE on Monday night released the dates of the major subjects of Class X and XII Board exams. Dates of the minor subjects will be provided to schools.
Exams for several subjects from the 2020 Board exam were not held, while the 2021 exams for both classes could not be conducted at all because of the pandemic. Thereafter, in keeping with the provisions of the National Education Policy 2020, the Board decided to conduct exams in two phases – Term 1 (which is MCQ based 90-minute tests) and Term 2 (which will be 120-minute subjective tests). Both the terms will have practical exams. However, the Term 1 practicals will be conducted by the schools.

According to Sanyam Bhardwaj, controller of examinations, CBSE, the Board has made elaborate arrangement for the conduct of the Term 1 exams amid fears of a Covid-19 third wave. “All the schools will be sanitised and only 12 students will be seated in each room to maintain social distancing.”

The Class XII exams for major subjects will commence with sociology on December 1, 2021. The other major subjects like English, mathematics, physics, accountancy, chemistry and economics will be conducted on December 3, 6, 10, 13, 14 and 15 respectively. The Class X major subject exams will commence from social science on November 30,2021, followed by science on December 2, mathematics basic and standard on December 4 and English on December 11.

The Board has also made special provision for students with disabilities, which include separate seating arrangements. “Separate rooms will be provided to such candidates. They will also be given assistance by the centres as per CBSE directives and rights of the PwDs to make the exams barrier free,” added Bhardwaj.

On doubling the number of centres, Bhardwaj said: “This is being done to ensure that students are either appearing in an exam centre close to their school and wherever this is not possible, candidates will be allowed to write the exam in their own school. But every exam centre will be monitored by CBSE observers.”