SRINAGAR: Preparations have been completed for holding the Class 10 exam in Kashmir.
This will be the first board exam after the Omar government announced to restore the November-December academic session.
Over 95,000 students from the Kashmir division and winter zone areas of Jammu division, including students from Ladakh, are expected to write the exam.
This time, the question papers will be a little bit competency-based to test the intelligence of the students.
“The papers will be as they used to be. No change in that. However, question papers will be a little bit competency-based. This is to test the intelligence and learning outcomes of the student,” Sheikh Ghulam Hassan, Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE), told The Kashmir Monitor.
The exams will start on November 3 and will conclude on November 27. “We started preparations two to three months ago. We have finalized the preparations. Now, we are ready to go,” said Sheikh.
The notification for reverting the academic session was issued last year, and since then, BOSE has been making arrangements to ensure a smooth transition. Since there were disruptions due to natural calamities, including floods, the government decided to give relaxation in the syllabus.
Most of the schools in Kashmir have CCTV cameras where every activity will be monitored during the exams. Since the invigilators have also been given strict instructions, the BOSE team itself will be keeping a watchful eye on everything.
Likewise, the exams for 11th and 12th classes will start from November 19 and November 8, respectively. Over 1,52,000 students of class 11th (81,000) and 12th (71,000) from Kashmir and winter zone areas of Jammu, including students from Kargil, are writing the exam.
“Preparation is almost complete for class XI and XII. We are giving final touches, and by the time the exam starts, we will have everything in place,” said Sheikh.
From next year, the BOSE is planning to switch to NEP completely and set exam papers in a way that the students’ real intelligence is tested. “We will be adopting NEP standards and accordingly you will see competency based papers,” said Sheikh.