Assess Class 10 students over phone if they missed internal exams, CBSE tells schools

In a detailed FAQ document sent to schools, CBSE has said students who are not reachable over the phone for telephonic assessment can be marked absent.

Representational image of students at a Kashmir school | ANI

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has told schools to conduct either online/offline or telephonic assessment of students who have not appeared in any of the internal assessments in Class 10. This and other instructions were sent to schools earlier this week by the board for tabulating Class 10 results.

The board had on 1 May released detailed guidelines for affiliated schools on calculating results for Class 10 students in absence of the final exams this year.

Students are assessed out of 100 marks in each subject, which usually includes 20 marks for internal assessment and 80 for the final board exams. Now that the board exams have been cancelled, the policy document by the CBSE said that the 80 marks will also need to be calculated based on internals such as unit tests, pre-boards and other tests that students have written throughout the year.

In case a student has not appeared in any of the internal assessments, the board has suggested that the assessments be conducted by the school, using offline/online or telephonic method.

“If any candidate has not appeared in any of the assessments conducted by the school, the school may conduct an offline/online or a telephonic one to one assessment and record documentary evidences to certify the recommendations,” the board said in a detailed FAQ document sent to schools Tuesday.

“The student may be assessed objectively on that basis by the school out of maximum marks of each subject,” it added.

The FAQs released as an additional document after the policy is meant to ensure that schools have clarity on how to calculate results.

Students can be marked absent

The board also said if a student is not in town or not reachable over the phone for telephonic assessment, they can be marked absent. In case the school is unable to reach the parent of a student who was absent in the pre-boards due to the pandemic, that student would also be marked absent. If the student is not traceable for any other reason, he or she should also be marked absent.

According to CBSE sources, many schools had conveyed to them that some students have not appeared in any internal assessment and the schools have been unable to reach out to either students or their parents over the phone because of the pandemic. For such cases, the board clarified that the schools are allowed to mark those students absent in the exams.

The latest document also said students’ parents won’t be allowed to view exam copies or verify marks after declaration of result this time.

The CBSE has also clarified that it is mandatory for all schools to follow the policy decided by the board.

Schools have been asked to prepare and submit the marks to the board by 30 June, based on which the results will be declared. No official date for the announcement of the result has been declared by the board so far.