Navodaya schools to have common exams

CHANDIGARH: In a step towards constitution of an internal academic board, the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti has decided to conduct common examinations for all non-Board classes (except class VI) in the Navodaya schools at the regional level.
Under the new system to be implemented in the current academic session itself, each of the non-Board classes, including class VII, VIII, IX and XI, will now have common question papers set at the regional level.
The Samiti central office has issued directions to the regional offices to make arrangements to usher the centralised examination system.
Says ML Sharma, deputy director, Navodaya Vidyalaya Chandigarh regional office, ‘‘The new examination regime has been brought in to strengthen the system internally.’’ The Chandigarh regional office supervises the functioning of 43 schools in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. The regional office is now preparing a plan of action for the conduct of the examination.
The examinations will be conducted state-wise for classes VII and VIII, if the schools are following the state education board syllabus. In case all the schools in a region are following the NCERT syllabus, the examination will be a common one at the regional level. The regional office is in the process of selecting competent teachers to set the question papers and arrange, edit, print and distribute them among the schools by March 10.
The answer sheets of the schools are proposed to be evaluated in a centralised manner in each cluster separately. The regional office will be making arrangements for identifying a centre in each cluster to carry out spot evaluation of the answer sheets. The evaluation process is proposed to be completed in five to six days. The results will be announced on or before March 31 with the new classes scheduled to commence from April 1.
The move towards constitution of an internal academic board for Navodaya schools was initiated at the deputy directors’ conference of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti held earlier at Lucknow.
Subsequently, Samiti officials held a meeting with the CBSE chairman on January 21, to work out the details towards this end. The Samiti is now in the process of finalising the modalities for constituting the internal academic board.