CBSE 2008 Boards to have HOTS based question papers

New Delhi, Feb 14 (UNI) The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will introduce redesigned High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) question paper for class 10th and 12th examinations, to commence from March 1, this year.

Based on the National Curriculum Framework--2005, the new design includes about 10 per cent of very short answer questions and about 20 per cent of questions to assess HOTS, CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly told a news conference.

''This marks a paradigm shift in our pattern of assessing the students... The typology of the question paper is different,'' he added.

For the class 10 examinations, in which more than 7.65 lakh students are appearing, the HOTS pattern will be used in all subjects. Question papers of 10 subjects for twelfth standard students-- more than 5.4 lakh -- will be based on the new design.

The subjects include Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Business Studies, Accountancy, Economics, Political Science and History.

''The aim of the new pattern is to develop the critical thinking and analytical skills of the pupils... Besides testing understanding of information, the focus will be on measuring students' abilities to reason, justify and evaluate information,'' Mr Ganguly explained.

''The HOTS pattern has been introduced to enable our students to face global challenges and compete internationally,'' he added.

The Boards from this year will also provide five chances to students with compartment to clear the paper.

''Till now we used to provide only 3 opportunities to the students to clear a paper but now we have increased it to five,'' the Board Chairman said.

While the class 10th examinations will be conducted from March 1 to 27, the twelfth standard examinations will be held from March 1 to April 2.

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