The Karnataka government has decided to implement board exams for students of classes 5 and 8 at the end of the academic year. As per an order dated Monday, December 12, the Karnataka State Education and Assessment Board (KSEAB) will conduct annual exams for the two classes starting from March 2023. Further, the government has decided to scrap the no-detention policy for students of these classes. As per the new guidelines, schools will be able to hold students back if they fail the exam and the supplementary, which would be held two months later. However, no student shall be expelled before they complete elementary education, it adds.
According to the guidelines, the exams will be for 50 marks and will last two hours. Further, a model question paper is expected to be distributed to all schools — private, aided and government — in January 2023. Apart from the exam, students will be evaluated for another 50 marks through two formative assessments (FA) and a summative assessment (SA). While the FAs have been completed for this academic year, the government has asked that SA-2 be conducted, for the syllabus covered between November 2022 and March 2023.
The guidelines state that the exams will be conducted from March 9 to 17, 2023, while the assessment will take place from March 21 to 28. The results will be announced between April 8 and 10. Students who fail will be given the chance to appear for supplementary exams which will be held after the results are announced. For Class 5, the school must have at least 25 students to be considered a centre, barring which a school with this number of students must be identified within a 2 km radius. For Class 8, the minimum number of students is 50.
While the question papers will be set by the KSEAB, the schools are in charge of assessing the papers, and the school headmaster would be the one to register the students. For the 2023-24 academic year, however, the KSEAB will take care of the evaluation by randomising teachers at the taluk and block levels.