CBSE releases marking scheme for Class 10 board exams 2021 - Key details here

 

Amid the rising speculations over Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decision to hold Class 10, 12 Board exams in 2021, the CBSE has already released the sample papers and marking schemes for the upcoming CBSE Class 10 Board Exam 2021. 

The CBSE has released the new question paper design and the evaluation scheme for the class 10 board exam in order to help the students prepare well for the important exam. The students can take help of these subject-wise marking schemes to check the answers to all questions asked in the sample papers. The marking scheme released by CBSE also helps the student in knowing the answer writing skills.  

Important features of the CBSE marking scheme:

- It mentions suggestive answers.

- The marking scheme suggests the correct way of including the key concepts and keywords.

- It reveals the step-wise marking scheme which will be used by evaluators to check the answer sheets of candidates.

- It showcases the right way to answer the questions keeping them concise and informative.

All the students who are preparing to appear in the upcoming CBSE Class 10 Board Exam should analyse the CBSE marking scheme of each sample paper in order to understand how to write their answers in best way to obtain maximum marks.

Earlier, the CBSE had said that application-based questions will be introduced by the Board in 2021 class 12 board exams. 

“There will be more case-study based questions wherein a paragraph will be given to students and they will have to answer questions after reading the paragraph. This will assess students on their reading, understanding, interpretation, and answer writing abilities and move away from the root learning,” Joseph Emmanuel, director, academics at CBSE was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

Earlier, these questions used to carry one mark but it is likely that from 2021 these questions would translate into short or long questions. It is to be noted that the CBSE has already released sample papers based on the new format.

CBSE Board Exams 2021 datesheet to be out soon - Tips to score high in board exams

Amid rising speculations that Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) may decide to postpone 2021 Class 10, 12 board exams, board secretary Anurag Tripathi has announced that the board exams will happen for sure.

Addressing a webinar on New Education Policy (NEP), Tripathi said that the CBSE is currently making plans to hold the Class 10, 12 Board exams and will soon reveal how it will conduct the exams amid coronavirus pandemic.

Tripathi, however, said nothing about the exam dates and also failed to clarify if the exams will be held in February-March as per schedule or will be postponed.

Here are the 5 tips that can help students obtain good marks in CBSE Board Exams 2021:

Follow the reduced syllabus: Students must adhere to the reduced syllabus in order to save time and complete the syllabus on time. Several publishers have now introduced CBSE Question Banks, based on the reduced syllabus. 

Practice Sample Papers: Practice sample papers of all subjects in order to have a better understanding of eadh subject.

Allot time for each subject: Allot time for each and every subject and try to follow a time-table to complete your task on time.

Revision is the key: Focus on revision of important topics.

Take breaks: Do not study for long hours at a stretch. Take small breaks in order to keep yourself fresh.

SC, OBC aspirants for UPSC, JEE to now get free coaching at ‘best’ centres of their choice

Candidates from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) preparing for competitive exams such as the UPSC, IIT-JEE and NEET among others, who receive free coaching under a central government scheme, could soon have the option to choose their own coaching centres.

Sources in the government told ThePrint that while presently, under the Scheme for Free Coaching for SC and OBC students, candidates are randomly allotted coaching centres that are enrolled with the government, the Centre is now planning to amend the scheme so 2,000 of the brightest aspirants can pick their own institutes. These institutes need not be enrolled with the government.

“Some of the best institutes do not get enrolled with the government because they feel it could impede their business… As a result, students end up going to institutes that don’t necessarily cater to their coaching needs,” said an official, who did not wish to be named. “So, the government has worked out a plan whereby candidates can pick their own institutes, and the government pays the entire amount to these institutes for coaching the candidates.”

Under the scheme, run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the government provides free coaching to 4,000 economically disadvantaged SC and OBC candidates to enable them to appear in competitive examinations and succeed in obtaining an appropriate job in the public and private sectors.

With the tweak, the government would give the option of selecting the coaching centres to 50 per cent of the candidates, who would be shortlisted on the basis of their online applications. The Centre wishes to gradually expand the scope of this provision to 100 per cent of the candidates.

ThePrint contacted the social justice ministry spokesperson through text messages for a comment. This report will be updated when a response is received.

Scheme for free coaching for SC and OBC students

The exams covered under this scheme include Group A and Group B examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB), State Service Commissions, Public Sector Units or the exams conducted for admission in IIT-JEE, NEET, Law colleges, etc. The scheme also covers examinations like the GRE, GMAT, SAT.

While 70 per cent of the candidates under the scheme belong to the SC community, 30 per cent belong to the OBC community.

The scheme launched in 2016 has seen over 10 per cent of the candidates who were given free coaching crack the various exams in the last four years, sources said.

Speaking to ThePrint on the proposal, the head of a leading IAS coaching centre in New Delhi said it is a “welcome one” since it allows coaching centres to fulfil their social responsibilities without impacting their business models. “The only fear would be that the performance of the institute should not be affected. But that can be ensured by providing the best quality coaching to these students.”

Source: https://theprint.in/india/sc-obc-aspirants-for-upsc-jee-to-now-get-free-coaching-at-best-centres-of-their-choice/547278/

TOEFL exam: Talking about real challenges, change in education policy and much more

TOEFL is designed to measure the English skills of non-English speaking people by testing their writing, reading, listening, and speaking abilities. It’s natural to feel a little tensed about preparing for the exams but in a broader outlook, TOEFL is a helpful test. The English language plays a very important role in everyone’s career. The TOEFL test is all about using English in real-life settings.

In an interaction with India Today Education, TOEFL Executive Director Srikant Gopal talks about the need to introduce TOEFL iBT Home Edition, student support offered by ETS in times of Covid-19, recent changes in the TOEFL exam, the new education policy, and much more.

1. What makes at-home solutions different from the regular toefl exam taken at test centers?

The TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition is the same valid and reliable TOEFL iBT test delivered to test takers from the safety and convenience of their home monitored by a human proctor online through ProctorU. The test is identical in content, format, on-screen experience, and scoring to the TOEFL iBT test taken at a test center.

It uses the same scoring criteria, scoring process, and score scale, and therefore scores are accepted and used in the same way. As a result, the Home Edition is accepted nearly universally by all universities that accept the TOEFL iBT (whether it is mentioned on a university website or not).

Also, the at-home solution features the recent TOEFL Better Test Experience enhancements, including MyBest scores and instant, unofficial Reading and Listening scores.

2. With the world starting to open up, what are the safety measures that ETS is planning to take for students who will soon start taking the TOEFL from physical centers?

Physical test centers for TOEFL across India are steadily opening up, following all health and safety regulations and laws. For test-takers who can test and plan to take the TOEFL iBT test at a test center, the safety and well-being of the entire TOEFL community is our top priority.

Precautionary measures have been implemented to ensure a safe testing environment, including cleaning high-touch surfaces and providing wipes for test-takers to clean surfaces (e.g., keyboards, headsets, desks) before each use.

Also, with the Special Home Edition of the TOEFL iBT also available 24 hours a day, four days per week, Indian students and test takers have a real choice to take the test in a test center or at home, based on their preference and convenience.

3. Why should a student choose TOEFL over its competitors?

With 100% academic content and integrated tasks that simulate the actual classroom experience, TOEFL is the only test of English communication specifically designed for the university academic context with valid, reliable, and accurate scores.

Admissions officers around the world know this, and that is why the TOEFL iBT is preferred over other English tests by 9 out of 10 universities in the US., by 8 out of 10 graduate programs in Canada, by universities in France and Germany, and beyond. So, by taking the TOEFL iBT test, a student helps to ensure that they stand out in confidence among their peers for their English language skills.

TOEFL scores also provide universities with the confidence that applicants are prepared to succeed at their institutions through their demonstrated ability to communicate in English in a rigorous, academic environment.

Only TOEFL offers students the option to take the same high quality and high-security TOEFL iBT assessment in a traditional test center or at home with 100% live human proctoring.

4. Could you suggest some tips for students who aspire to study abroad and may need to appear for the TOEFL exam in the future?

When students register for the TOEFL iBT test to demonstrate their English language proficiency, they will receive access to the full line of official test prep resources to help them do their best and stand out to admissions officers.

Whether students are preparing for the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition or the standard TOEFL test experience, the test prep materials are the same. Students are encouraged to take advantage of these free resources to help boost their confidence whether they are looking to quickly brush up on their skills before test day or are just getting started:

The TOEFL Test Preparation: The Insider’s Guide offers a six-week online course with videos, quizzes and tips from expert instructors. The course was developed by experts who created, administer and score the TOEFL test, and is an interactive way to spend a few hours a week preparing for each test section. 

5. Do you think the Covid 19 virus has made it difficult for Indian students to pursue their dream of studying abroad? What do you anticipate the future is going to look like for the higher education space?

The global Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the educational landscape around the world and has made it more difficult for students to plan for the future. While we have seen some students postpone their plans, we have seen other students eagerly take advantage of the increased opportunities and better admission chances at top universities that may be available to them in this unique situation.

That is why ETS worked very quickly to offer the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition in a record six weeks after the pandemic broke. With this version of the TOEFL iBT, students can continue their educational journeys without interruption and fulfill their application requirements during a time when in-person testing for TOEFL and other English language tests may not be as readily available.

We are confident that the higher education sector will rebound strongly as solutions to control and eliminate the virus are found in the coming months. The drive among talented students to work hard and pursue study abroad opportunities will get stronger as the world returns to normality.

India is already the second-largest source of students in the world and is soon expected to become the largest. With an unparalleled record of success all over the world as students and professionals, the pandemic cannot hinder Indian students from following their dreams and achieving global career success. TOEFL will continue to support the aspirations of Indian students by providing them choices and flexibility.

6. The New Education Policy brings several reforms in the higher education space including attracting foreign universities in India. How does ETS view this change?

ETS welcomes and applauds India’s bold and visionary approach to reforming, improving and broadening access to quality education for all Indians through the framework of the New Education Policy (NEP), and the increased opportunities it will make available to Indian students of all backgrounds.

The goals and principles articulated in the NEP align very well with ETS’s mission-oriented approach of advancing quality and equity in education for all people worldwide. We look forward to collaborating with the authorities and other stakeholders in India in areas including English language learning, teaching and assessment where ETS’s global expertise can be meaningfully leveraged in an Indian local and cultural context.

Education that focuses on challenges over disciplines

A software company is looking to expand. It puts out a call for software engineers, web developers and systems analysts, specifying particular degrees, skills and competencies. Applicants with honours degrees are shortlisted. That’s how recruitment has gone for the past century and more. Here’s a different scenario:

A software company is looking to expand. It sets out a series of challenges it wants to meet over the next few years—for example, “break into the Chinese market", or “shift to the circular economy across all supply chains". Shortlisted applicants come from all fields. The winning candidate has no software knowledge or experience relevant to the challenges set in marketing or procurement, but has proven success in meeting a complex healthcare challenge.

Are we moving from a discipline-based approach to a challenge-based approach? This would be a seismic shift in our whole approach to higher education and research.

In research universities like Trinity College Dublin, research and learning are interdependent: Discoveries from research determine what is taught, and what we teach influences what we research. In practice, this has meant that Trinity has developed a disciplinary approach: Experts conduct deep research in their discipline and draw on this to educate students who become socialized into their field of study. Employers, accordingly, recruit from specific disciplines.

This approach has worked right through the 20th century, and into the 21st as well, to deliver the research and graduates that drive economic growth and improve our lives in myriad ways. However, there are increasing signs that the approach needs renewal—disciplinary immersion and a silo’d approach are no longer enough to address the global challenges we face.

What do we mean by “global challenges"? These are issues that address fundamental challenges of human resources or security that have emerged across the globe, at scale, and cannot be solved by a single discipline or within a single country. Energy provision, inequality, migration, conflict resolution, and other problems de jour are all global challenges in need of urgent attention, as also our climate emergency and pandemics.

Challenge-based research is de facto interdisciplinary, but it extends well beyond that concept into a whole new mindset, shifting the emphasis from what the researcher knows to what the challenge requires. Reliance on one’s discipline can lead to an overly deterministic approach. For instance, the challenge of “how to prevent the spread of Ebola in west Africa" was only solved once epidemiologists began to work with anthropologists and religious leaders to understand traditional burial practices.

Such challenge-based research is still in its early stage, but resources are being put into it. Initiatives like the Earth Institute in the University of Columbia, and Trinity’s planned new Engineering, Environment and Emerging Technologies Institute (E3), are all indicators of a shift towards challenge-based research. Krea University is organizing its approach to research across four critical global challenges spanning intelligence, society, sustainability, capital and markets. Since what we research determines how we educate, challenge-based learning is also in development. How will it work in practice?

An example is CHARM-EU, or Challenge-driven, Accessible, Research-based Mobile, European University—a European university alliance that intends to create a new kind of educational experience with a mission “to reconcile humanity and the planet". This alliance will offer a new kind of masters programme that empowers students to co-construct their own curricula. Students are asked to identify challenges around sustainable development goals, and then determine which modules and courses would be most helpful in meeting those goals.

All CHARM-EU students are post-graduates who come armed with discipline-driven bachelor degrees. Is this the right progression, or should we be confronting them with challenges earlier?

Currently, students’ decision on what to study at university is based on aptitudes demonstrated in high school for particular subjects. From a young age, they learn to be discipline-based. Can we move children beyond the self-fulfilling prophesies of “good at maths" or “good at languages"? And can we, as educators, change our own mindset so that, faced with a challenge, we ask what we might need to know, rather than applying what we already know?

In institutions aiming for such a shift, there are signs of undergraduates moving towards this. Trinity’s student accelerator, LaunchBox, for example, enables students to incubate, seed-fund and market business ideas. Students from different disciplines form teams to solve self-identified challenges around, say, food waste, clean energy, sustainable fashion. Their learning is self-directed. If challenge-driven research is frequently top-down, then challenge-driven learning is frequently bottom-up.

While more universities are embracing a challenge-based approach to research and learning, it is the traditional approach that continues to dominate. The tipping point will come once employers, at scale, begin to recognize the merits of this new approach, and seek graduates who focus on challenges rather than disciplines. That moment may not be too far in the future.

Will CBSE conduct Class 10, 12 board exams in 2021 earlier than expected? Here’s what students should know

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) may conduct class 10, class 12 board exams 2021 earlier than expected in order to conduct competitive examinations such as NEET, JEE etc, on time. But the CBSE is yet to make any official announcement in this regard. 

Sources claimed that the CBSE has already started the process to hold Class 10, 12 exams earlier than expected in 2021 and has completed the process of list of candidates, examination forms (LOC). Several schools affiliated with the CBSE are also making efforts to follow their time table in order to complete the syllabus on time so that the students do not face trouble if examinations are held earlier than expected.

Some reports claimed that the CBSE is planning to either shorten the syllabus or delay the exams by 45 to 60 days as normal classes across the country were suspended for over 6 months due to coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown announced to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

It may be recalled that the BSE had postponed the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) due to coronavirus. The exam was earlier scheduled to be held on July 5, 2020, but it will now be held on January 31, 2021.

India wants innovation, but arrests IIT grad who develops faster Tatkal ticket-booking app

India’s policy-shapers love to talk big on innovation. From constitutional office-bearers and bureaucrats to think-tankers of assorted political orientation, everyone has a bullish view. Conference keynotes bring up buzzwords like ‘AI’, ‘ML’, ‘blockchain’ with predictable, almost banal, regularity to reinforce the view that India is open to innovation and in lockstep with the bleeding edge of technology.

Yet, the reality from the entrepreneurial trenches does not square against the rhetoric. Innovators regularly face bureaucratic headwinds ranging from procedural hoops and paperwork (for garden variety tasks like raising capital) to flat out industry-wide shadow bans (note the now-estopped notification of the RBI foreclosing banking access to digital asset intermediaries). This is, of course, a familiar situation in the financial sector, where our regulators have always “crossed the river by feeling the stones”, as the Chinese idiom goes. Now, you might argue that given how innovation in that context intersects with financial stability, consumer savings and fiduciary risks, it’s better to be safe than sorry. And while that argument is hardly a winner, it does have plausibility.

It should dismay us, however, that the same heavy-handed attitude prevails in other industries with far lesser regulatory sensitivities than finance. Consider the case of young IIT-Kharagpur alumnus S. Yuvarajaa, a resident of Tamil Nadu, who designed an auto-filling mobile application to make the user experience of booking tickets on Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)’s website smoother. One might think Indian Railways would be on board with this innovation, especially since the enhanced user experience on the margin likely contributes to greater ticket throughput (and hence greater revenue). Nope, no such luck.

Arresting innovation

The Railway Protection Force of the Southern Railway tracked down Yuvarajaa and arrested him. Yuvarajaa must have been onto something because his app garnered 100,000 users in a short time. Ironically, a bare perusal of Section 143 of the Railways Act, under which Yuvarajaa has been charged, shows that it has no applicability either to the end-use that his two Android apps — ‘SuperTatkal’ and ‘SuperTatkal Pro’ — facilitated, or to the developer, or the consumers using it to make their life easier while booking tickets.

Section 143 lays down the penalty for “unauthorised carrying on of the business of procuring and supplying railway tickets”.

Now, interpreted in its plain literal sense, as statutes are interpreted, the app-developer was not in the business of procuring and supplying railway tickets. The users downloaded the application from Google Play Store against in-app payment and used the software to process their tatkal-related formalities faster. Yuvarajaa was, therefore, simply selling software that made the user journey smoother.

The words, “unauthorised carrying on the business of procuring and supplying tickets for travel”, on the other hand, suggests that it is directed at a person in the business of unauthorised dealing in railway tickets, that is, obtaining them (in bulk, practically speaking) and supplying them further downstream. The section is directed at deterring louts engaged in unauthorised dealing of railway tickets. An app-developer engaged in the business of selling B2C (business-to-consumer) software that auto-fills forms is not the object of the statute.

The railway officials also appeared to rely on a claim that the application enabled the users to ‘front-run’ other travellers that sought to book tickets through the normal IRCTC website, thus denying the latter the chance to buy the ticket. That again seems a spurious suggestion. ‘Front-running’ is only an issue if there is a fiduciary connection between the party front-running and the party who is hurt owing to the front-running. But the necessary condition of trust-based nexus is missing in passengers trying to book at the same time from several different locations. Indeed, they don’t even know of each others’ existence, to say nothing of a trust-based connection between them. Furthermore, the application is available freely for everyone to download from Google Play Store. So, this isn’t the case of selective access either.

Innovation rhetoric and lived realities

The unfortunate situation with the developer here brings into sharp relief the gaping divide between the rhetoric driving innovation in India and the lived realities thereof. It would be remiss if I ended this article on a pessimistic note. So, here’s a proposal to mitigate the risks to innovators and developers from bureaucratic heavy-handedness.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY), as the nodal ministry for digital innovation, may create an office of innovation in coordination with other ministries and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Among other things, the Office of Innovation may certify, after due security checks and audits, applications that facilitate consumer interaction with government services including Railways. Borrowing a regulatory innovation from the regulatory sandbox context, the Office of Innovation may also issue “no-action letters” (NALs) that act as immunity shields in favour of these innovators against potential arbitrary actions, of the type we witnessed in Yuvarajaa’s case.

The legal mechanics to install such a general office of innovation and confer upon it the power to issue NALs are not complex; furthermore, the office can draw upon personnel from the MeITY, other relevant ministries and private sector expertise to evaluate applications for NALs. This limited governance innovation would go a long way in bridging the yawning gap between the rhetoric and reality of innovation in India.

Mandar Kagade is an independent financial public policy consultant. Views are personal.

Source: The Print