CBSE, ICSE, State Board exam numbers to lose relevance? Check what New Education Policy says

The Union government today unveiled the new education policy. In one of the significant moves, the government has tried to reduce the stakes on board exams and the reading of their outcomes. In the new education policy launched today by the Union Ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Prakash Javdekar, the Central government has decided to conduct board exams in future in such as way that it will examine the actual knowledge of a student rather than testing rote learning prevalent in the present and past times.

“Board exams will be low stakes & test actual knowledge instead of rote learning”, the new education policy suggested.

Bringing further light on the focus to sharpen the overall skills of students, the government has said that the report cards will now provide a detailed and comprehensive analysis of students’ skills and capabilities instead of just marks obtained and remarks made by teachers.

“Report cards will be a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and statements”, the government said in its new education policy.

Giving importance to the mother tongue of students, the government, in the new education policy has mandated the use of mother tongue as a ‘medium of instruction’ till standard five.

Meanwhile, the government has renamed the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Education emphasizing the role of technology in the educational sector of India. “Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to be renamed as Ministry of Education”, said the erstwhile HRD Minister and now the Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in a media briefing.

Notably, this year, due to the coronavirus outbreak throughout the country, the examination of various papers in many state and national-level boards such as CBSE and ICSE were hampered. Following the postponement of examination, before the final cancellation, boards had adopted various measures to evaluate the examination of papers on the basis of past performance and marks obtained in the examination of papers that could be conducted before the pandemic.