CBSC relaxes criteria of pass marks for Class X students

October 12: The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) in amajor relief to the students relaxed the mandatory requirement to pass the exam. At present it’s mandatory to secure 33% in class 10 board exam and 33% in internal assessment but CBSE wants to change that.

In a last-minute decision, the board exempted class X students from the mandatory requirement of separately securing a minimum of 33% marks in each of the five subjects in the school-based assessment and the board examinations in order to be declared passed. The relaxation was granted for this year’s class X board examinations only in view of the students of the 2017-18 batch who are appearing in the board examination for the first time. The examination is scheduled to begin from March 5.

The class 10 exams were made mandatory from this year after seven years. In 2009, the HRD ministry had said the class 10 exams will be made optional and it implemented it in 2010-11. As a “one-time measure,” the class X students to be taking board examinations this year are also exempted from mandatory separate pass criteria norms in additional subjects, provided these subjects comprises of internal assessment of 20 marks and the and the board examinations of 80 marks.

The mandatory separate passing criteria will, however, continue to apply for: Home Science, Foundation of Information Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Elements of Business, Elements of Book Keeping and Accountancy, e-publishing and e-office, Painting, Carnatic Music, Hindustani Music and NCC.