The government has been looking for changes in education to reduce the stress on students. However, now CBSE is planning to conduct Open Book Exams. The CBSE is in a plan to conduct a pilot run regarding these Open Book Exams and will decide on the pilot run in selected schools.
The Open Book Exams idea came in a board meeting which was conducted in December 2023. Although the idea was accepted the board members are in no rush in implementing the program but have revealed the details regarding the Open-Book Exams.
What Is Open Book Exams?
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board meeting conducted on December 2023 has opened doors for Open-Book Exams (OBE). The board plans to conduct a pilot run program to learn about the adoption of this program by students.
The CBSE board has decided to conduct the open-book exams pilot run among 9-12 standard students in the second half of 2024.
As per reports from CBSE board members they are no plan to adopt this program in class 10th and 12th board exams after the pilot run.
This open-book exams or assessments pilot run will take place only in selected schools and targeted subjects to measure the time taken to complete the tests by students and take feedback.
Open Book Exams Procedure:
The open-book exams will be conducted on subjects including English, Mathematics, and Science in classes 9th and 10th, while subjects of English, Mathematics, and Biology in classes 11th and 12th will be considered for this pilot run.
During this pilot-run program, students will have permission to refer to their notes, textbooks, and even study materials. This will evaluate students’ higher-order thinking skills, application analysis, creative thinking, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
The design, development, and review of Open-book exams will be completed by June 2024, while the pilot run of these open-book exams is planned for the November-December months of 2024.
PURPOSE OF OPEN BOOK EXAMS:
What Is the Purpose of Open Book Exams:
This open book exam is planned with the recommendation from the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). This pilot run will evaluate the time and suitability for formative and summative assessments in schools. Once the pilot run is successful with good reviews then the board will implement the program in CBSE schools in selected standards.
But if it fails to achieve what aimed for then the board might scrap the same. The pilot run will be conducted only in selected standards and schools without disturbing the main exams of the board. However, it is no plan to adopt the open-book exams program for CBSE 10th and 12th board exams as they are considered as the gateway of career.
OTBA Similar To OBE:
CBSE has conducted an Open Text Based Assessment (OTBA) program for three years between 2014 to 2017 among 9th and 11th standard final exams. This program was scrapped as it was not successful due to the unavailability of high-quality textbooks and the teacher’s involvement in providing advanced placement exams in accordance with the program.
Even the teachers were asked to take the open-text exams to understand the potential of multiple answers in the program. They stated it is important to understand the need for advanced placement exams that support entrance exams of US colleges and high-standard content.
Now the CBSE is coming with OBE which is nearly similar to OTBA. OBE can become a benchmark program if conducted with proper guidelines and necessities.
Conclusion:
This open book exam focuses on promoting innovative thinking among students in internal exams but, it would fail miserably without proper procedure to write the exams and consideration of marks.
As the open-book exams aim for innovative writing and parents consider marks as the performance of students in academics the governing body CBSE or NCF should bring proper guidelines for this type of internal exams
And should state about what is the purpose of creating this open-book exam. If everything goes as per directives stated by the governing body CBSE we can see the purpose and guidelines of writing the internal exams in June 2024 itself without any delay.
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