The Secretary of the Secondary Education Board Basanta Das said, "There were practical exams for Mathematics, Science and English comprising of 20 marks each, and the theory exams for 80 marks. The practical exams were held before the theory exams but this was creating a lot of problems and was very time consuming. This is why we have decided to stop the practicals and have written exams of 100 marks".
The practical marks had to be collected and tallied again with the final result, due to which the process of final assessment got delayed causing the results to be declared late, he added. Also he further explained that "We have seen that the process of evaluation got delayed as we had to collect marks separately and then tally it. The practical exams were mainly held to check a student's knowledge of the subject as a lot of students write good English, but they can't speak . So, practicals were introduced. But, now they are not feasible any more, so we have changed the format".
The officials informed that Board of Secondary Education is going in for a curriculum revamp and even the question paper pattern would be changed.
Basanta Das said "The Board of secondary Education has been following the same question pattern for years ow, whereas other boards change their question paper pattern every two years. So, we are trying to make the paper more compact now on the lines of other boards. This is also to prevent the examination paper pattern from becoming predictable".