In India, board examinations refer to the pivotal examinations that occur at the end of the 9th to 10th grade education (SSC), or at the end of the 11th to 12th grade education (HSC). The scores achieved in these exams are considered very important for getting into university, getting into professional courses or training programs, and even possibly in finding employment.
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(This section and the next describe the CBSE board examinations. Procedures may vary with other boards.)
Each of the examinations takes place simultaneously across the world, to ensure that questions are not leaked in advance across time zones. Security is usually very high for these board examinations. The question papers are distributed by the overseeing board of education, and their contents are guarded closely until the exam begins. The examinations may include multiple sets of question papers as well. The candidates are issued identification passes in advance, which are presented to the staff at the examination site. The site itself must not be the same school where a candidate is from; to ensure impartiality, the candidate must travel to a different school to take the examination. For the same reason, the candidate may not identify himself/herself on the answer sheet except with an identity-masking number. Use of calculation aids other than logarithm tables is prohibited. The examinations last about 3 hours per course, 2.5 hours in case of science theory and 1.5 hours for science practical.
The COUNCIL was established in 1958 by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate to ensure that its examinations become adapted to the educational needs of the country and assign the ultimate control of the same on the COUNCIL. The COUNCIL was registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 on 19 December, 1967. The object of the COUNCIL is educational, and includes the promotion of science, literature, the fine arts and the diffusion of useful knowledge by conducting school examinations through the medium of English. The Council exists solely for educational purposes and not for purposes of profit.
The answer sheets are sent back to the board of education overseeing the certifications. The papers are evaluated based on examples of ideal answers. A false roll no. is attached to the answer-sheet before evaluation. Once the answers have been evaluated, the identity numbers are matched to the actual roll no. (and identity) of the candidate. The board then issues an official grade/score report for the exam to the candidate, as well as a certificate of completion in the case of the HSC exam.
Recently, however, the HRD (Human Resource Development) ministry of India has announced that the class 10 board exams will be made optional from 2011. Also, in 2010, the system of evaluation will be changed from marks to grades, and a system of percentiles will be introduced. This is a part of sweeping changes in the education system initiated by the HRD minister, Kapil Sibal.No one will be failed this year.