Board Exams – It’s Time to Rethink These Painful Exams

The Indian education system is painfully broken, and nothing shows this more than the board exams, which were cancelled in 2021 after months of protests and agony faced by class 12th.

It is surprising that it took us so long to even get there. Students had barely recovered from the mess of 2020, when that devastating second wave of Covid had rolled over the country.

At a time when young people should have been staying at home and taking care of themselves and their family, they had to worry about whether or not would they be required to sit through one of the most important exams of their life while a devastating pandemic raged. How did we get to this point?

Rat Race, Mark Sheets, and The Quest for the Top 

Can board exams change their pattern?

Like many other problems, the overpopulation of India is one major reasons for India’s poor education system. The board exams are not just a series of tests that students have to take – for many, especially for those who want affordable higher education, scoring good on the board exams is essential.

In fact, even good doesn’t cut it. You have to today score at least above 96% to have a shot at Delhi University, which is a dream University for many. The main reason for competition in India is the fact that there are so many student’s competing.

And in a land where inequality between castes and classes is rampant, and objective criteria that focuses on only marks has long been the way of keeping things fair. But while the board exams may be objectively fair, are they really fair to students?

Even those from the science stream, who often have to sit for separate competitive exams, and usually expected to score top marks at the board exams, if for nothing but to keep the family honor high. Everybody who has given their board exams knows the social scrutiny that comes with it.

It is the first test in a country obsessed with social comparison. Will she score higher than my child? Does a humanities student’s high marks really count against those of a science student?

Relatives and adults who have never cared about a child suddenly emerge from the shadows, eager to watch the child and his family fail, or to complain about the unfair marking if they exceed expectations.

Double Edged Knife

However, even those who actively advocate for the cancellation of these board exams admit that changing the system can be a very, very difficult job. These recent board exams have already showed this.

The students who were celebrating the cancellation of these board exams are now worried about the new marking criteria, which will take into consideration student’s performance in their class X, XI, and XII internal results. Now, there are several ways in which this can be a problem.

First, students who have had poor results in the past, however, were looking to improve their scores in 12th, will face a massive blow. Students are also often known to relax in 11th grade, which comes between the two tough years.

Then, there is also the possibility that schools, again in the spirit of eternal competition, would grossly inflate the internal marks of class 12th students, which would lead to a skyrocketing of cut-offs once again. Once again, it is the students who would suffer.

Thus, the dismantling of the board exams cannot be a sudden and complete change. And the New Education Policy notes that.

Take What You Want

What kind of education are we really providing?

The NEP has envisioned a new method of education and exams in India, and one of the most noteworthy changes has been the flexibility of choosing their own subjects. Till now, students have been confined to specific streams, which often leads to studying for papers they simply do not perform well in, or have no interest in.

Flexibility to build one’s own course can help give more value to board exams, or more – it can help in bypassing them completely.

Subject-specific ‘Olympiads’ can be the way of assessing students without burdening them, which would help students develop specific and unique portfolios, and help them get admission to top universities without the pain of board exams.

Indeed, this flexibility in choosing their own subjects can help bridge the gap in yet another very critical issue in the Indian academics – the gap between what is learnt in classrooms, and what is needed at actual jobs.

The True Test

The entire country always awaits the results of these board exams, but the stakes only grow higher than they have been ever before.

If the criteria set out actually works, and the students and their parents, as well as the educational institutions are satisfied with the outcome, then the argument against one single cycle of intense examinations becomes that much stronger.

It will show that board examinations are truly not needed, and that effective evaluation can be undertaken without burdening the students in such a manner.

But, it is a very big if. Most anticipate some backlash to whatsoever is the outcome, and some are resigned to the fact that students who had a chance for a shot to the top, would now be relegated to the averages. There is off course no denying the fact that there would be certain consequences.

Perhaps for the first time however, these trials and tribulations may lead to something better..