Grade system for Class X Board, Board of Secondary Education, Odisha Board

The Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha is preparing to bring reform in the Class X state board examination system by replacing marks system with the grade system from the session 2014.

The board also plans to include more objective or multiple choice questions (MCQs) for better evaluation of answer sheets. It further plans to revamp the evaluation system and set accountability for wrong evaluation of answer sheets.

The sate school and mass education minister, Rabi Narayan Nanda said, that they want to make the whole education system student-friendly. For this, they have asked suggestions from teachers, parents, students and experts. “We would implement the reform initiatives based on the suggestions", he said.

On 03 October 2013, the school and mass education department organized a symposium on reforms in examinations and evaluation by the BSE. The participants in event were included educationists, politicians, teachers and students who expressed their views while discussing on various reform proposals.

Scrapping the division-based marking system, the board explained that the students will be evaluated on nine point grades like A1 (91-100), A2 (81-90), B1 (71-80), B2 (61-70), C1 (51-60), C2 (41-50), D (33-44), E (21-32) and F (0-20). The board said that this grading system will help reducing stress and competitive attitude among students. However, the exact marks obtained by students will also be mentioned in mark sheets in order to facilitate admission in colleges.

Further, to bring reforms in question paper pattern, the board plans to scale up the multiple choice questions to 50 marks on Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets. Currently, students have to appear for 40 marks of objective questions.

Among other opportunities this reform brings is for the first the time, students will get a chance to apply for re-evaluation of answer sheets. A student would have to appeal for the re-evaluation within seven days of the publication of results by paying Rs 700. The best part of this move is that the evaluation of answer sheets will be done by a group of evaluators and one scrutinizer, who will check answers of separate questions.