NEW DELHI: Schools across the capital on Wednesday welcomed the move to make the Board exams stress-free and termed it a step that was long due.

Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh announced on Tuesday that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was introducing a series of measures to make the Board examination a stress-free experience.

Apart from efforts to introduce the grading system at the earliest and the implementation of a project and assignment-based internal assessment working in mathematics, science and social sciences, the Board has decided to give students an extra time of 15 minutes to study the question paper before the beginning of the examination.

This would mean that students get two-and-a half hours to answer the question paper but three hours to complete it.

"In the last six decades, school education has not changed and now that they are thinking about it, I think it is a very positive step, especially since most of the times children do not even read the question paper well. But yes, we would also want the Board to discontinue the printing of sample answers as students then do not use their own abilities. To ensure our students do not do it we have now started giving more marks for lateral answers," said Shyama Chona, principal of Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram.

As part of its attempt to make education more enjoyable, the Board recently also issued a notification asking all schools to avoid holding more than one pre-Board examination.

Maths labs

The Board has also asked all schools to set up a Mathematics lab, and to focus on outdoor activities and field trips instead of depending on just books.

While pointing out that it will also depend on how well these measures are implemented, some schools say there is a still a long way to go.

"Given the present stressful circumstances, the news comes as a big relief for students. Although it will help reduce the pressure on students by providing a little help, there is a lot more that is desirable. We have introduced internal assessment in mathematics and the concept and design is fabulous. Yet how well it is executed in various schools will be the most important aspect. It should not degenerate into mundane marking but help as an exciting way of learning mathematics," said Lata Vaidyanathan, principal of Modern School, Barakhamba Road.

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