If the government accepts the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) draught, grade 12 students enrolled in the academic year 2024–2025 will be required to sit for two board examinations. Modular board exams would replace a single test at the end of the year for the 12th grade in the Ministry of Education’s proposed guidelines, which were announced last week. Additionally, numerous improvements have been suggested for evaluating 10th-grade students.
According to the new framework, grades from the previous class will be used to access pupils in the secondary stage of education, which comprises classes 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s proposed comprehensive and ongoing student assessment is outlined in the policy. The public is currently welcome to offer comments for the draught framework. Understanding that the second level of education under NEP 2020 entails four years of transdisciplinary studies before delving into the subject is crucial. Grades 9 and 10 will be reviewed together, and then grades 11 and 12 will be evaluated jointly in the second phase of this stage.
The framework claims that cutting the calendar in half for grade 10 would be optional. As a result, it has been suggested that the traditional annual examination pattern for grade 10 be maintained. However, if you follow the NCF’s recommendation for the number of tests, grade 10 kids will need to appear for eight “board examinations” to advance to the next class. This will include all tests given in grades 9 and 10 taken together. The NCF document states that “the final certification will be based on the cumulative result of each examination.”
The NCF draught framework gives students more freedom and options for what they can study, especially in secondary school, enabling them to create curricula. The framework implies that there won’t be a clear distinction between “curricular,” “extracurricular,” or “co-curricular,” between “arts,” “humanities,” and “sciences,” or between “vocational” or “academic” streams. Students must pass two required courses from each of the eight accessible curricular areas to pass the tenth grade. It will be necessary to complete 16 mandatory courses over two years in grades 9 and 10. Humanities, math and computing, vocational education, physical education, arts education, social science, science, and transdisciplinary topics are among the eight subject areas covered in the curriculum.
The length of each choice-based course in 12th grade would be one semester. To graduate from the 12th grade, students must complete 16 elective courses. The same eight curricular areas will still be available. Still, to ensure a deeper and more demanding level of involvement, choice-based courses will be created based on the curricular areas’ disciplines. The content of choice-based courses will be based on the unique characteristics of the many fields.
