CBSE to discontinue issue of blue prints, sample question papers and marking schemes

Updated on: Monday, July 16, 2012

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that used to issue blue prints, sample question papers and marking schemes in all major subjects for classes IX and X to provide a model template to serve as a guide for entailing uniformity in assessment, proper coverage of the curricula and validity (and therefore reliability) of assessment has decided to put an end to this practice.

According to Vineet Joshi, chairman , CBSE, the board decided to discontinue with this process after noticing that a large section of students and examiners punctiliously follow these documents, which results in precluding open-ended approach and diversity in expression, style and content. The blue print further micro-categorises items into difficult , average and easy with specific allotment of marks to each category , which again limits the framing of a particular type of question from a particular topic/chapter. Moreover, the release of blue prints and the sample question papers indirectly promotes teaching to the test.

"In order to address the above issues and to further discourage the practice of 'teaching to the test,' the board has decided to discontinue the practice of providing blue print, sample question papers and marking schemes in classes IX and X with effect from Summative Assessment-II (SA-II ) of 2012-13 ," says Joshi.

The weightings in the revised format will be assigned to entire units as mentioned in the curriculum as an alternative of chapter wise weighting given earlier. There will be a more flexible design or structure of assessment instead of a detailed blue print, which used to divide the curriculum into exceedingly narrower parts. The SA-II , which will be held in March 2013, will not be based on blue prints and sample questions papers and will rather follow a more comprehensive structure of examination and flexible patterns.

The structure of examination along with unit wise weighting for English, Hindi, Sanskrit, mathematics , science and social science together with pools of exemplar items will be shortly available on the academic websites of CBSE (www.cbseacademic .in) and will also be circulated to all the schools affiliated to the board.

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