13.13 lk students to appear for CBSE exams

New Delhi, Feb 29: A record of more than 13.13 lakh students, including 5.45 lakh girls, will appear for the 2008 CBSE class 10 and 12 examinations tomorrow.

''The Board is fully prepared to conduct the examinations. All security measures are also in place,'' CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly said.While the class 10th examinations will be conducted from March 1 to 27, the 12th standard examinations will be held from March 1 to April 2. The examinations will be conducted across 5,018 centres of which 375 have been marked as sensitive and will have additional security measures. The national capital alone will have 1,109 centres.

The Board, this year, is introducing redesigned High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) question paper for both the standards. 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.

Advising students to stay calm, Mr Ganguly said the new pattern will test understanding of information and the focus will be on measuring students' abilities to reason, justify and evaluate information.

''If a student has understood the basic concept then he will have no problems solving the paper. But in case a candidate has tried to mug up the lesson then it will be tough,'' he added.

This year more than 7.65 lakh students will write the class 10th examination and more than 5.48 lakh the 12th standard examination, which is an about eight per cent increase in the total number of candidates this year .

For the class 10 examinations the HOTS pattern will be used in all subjects. Question papers of 10 subjects for 12th standard students will be based on the new design. The subjects include Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Business Studies, Accountancy, Economics, Political Science and History.

From the Delhi region, a total 3.8 lakh candidates will appear for the boards. While for class 10th the number has increased by 5.68 per cent with 2.19 lakh pupils. An upward trend has also been registered class 12th by 2.6 per cent with more than 1.60 lakh students.

In the special category, which includes blind, dyslexics and handicapped, a total of 2,478 students will appear in class 10th and 12th examinations compared to last year's 2,132.

However, Delhi has witnessed a marginal reverse trend this year in this category with 1,105 candidates registering for the examinations against 1,127, in 2007. As many as six centres for class 10th and nine for class 12th blind candidates will be set up with specially trained examiners.

Mr Ganguly said to ensure ''qualitative standard'' of practical examinations for class 12th Chief Nodal Examiners have been appointed this year.

To facilitate smooth conduct of the examinations outside Delhi, 8,210 district committees were constituted to suggest schools with adequate infrastructure for fixing up of centres.

The Board will also introduce two pilot projects in Panchkula and Ajmer regions of using electronic fictious roll numbers on answer books while they are being assessed. The Chairman said more than 75 lakh answer books will be assesses this year which is 10 per cent more than 2007.

For providing tele-counselling, the Board this year, had appointed 36 Principals, trained counselors, psychologists and social scientists.

UNI