NEW DELHI: In a first, the Central Board of Secondary Education will prepare question banks for classes IX-XII. These questions will be used in the board examinations from next year.
The idea behind creating question banks is to shift the focus from rote learning to experiential learning, said CBSE secretary Anurag Tripathy. These banks will give reference to students on how questions that test critical thinking, scientific temper and innovative skills, he added.
“We have alerted schools to send questions that can work as input for creating banks for each subject and are expecting responses soon,” he said. “Input from teachers and students will also be sought.”
Currently, the board sets up panels of subject experts every year to prepare questions for its examinations.
“We will first make the banks in major subjects and then it will be adopted for all subjects,” he said and added that this will happen in phases.
Officials also said the aim of the move was to introduce a different kind of examination system in the country on the lines of education boards in Finland, Japan and Germany-the countries that were studied for the initiative.
“The board has decided to prepare a highly curated and user-friendly question bank on an IT platform that will not only be useful for students to enhance their learning process but also to teachers for incorporating in their pedagogy and assessments,” a circular sent by the CBSE to nearly 22,000 of its affiliated schools read.
Currently, the board sets up panels of subject experts every year to prepare questions for its examinations. There have been concerns that the pattern of question asked in the CBSE board examinations, in which nearly 35 lakh students appear every year, the students to memorise and reproduce school texts.
“The banks will still be vetted by subject experts but we want the involvement of all stakeholders in what kind ofquestions should be put forth to students,” another CBSE official said.
The board has introduced a plethora of changes, including giving more internal choices and rewarding creative answers during the evaluation process.