New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has come up with six criteria under which summative assessment-II will be conducted in March 2010. While the questions for the assessment will be provided by the Board, the students will be tested internally at their schools.

The CBSE has introduced examination reforms using Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in its affiliated schools from the academic year 2009-2010 . Under the new procedure, two formative assessments and one summative assessment has to be done. The schools have done or are already doing the formative assessments during the second term while the summative assessment for the current term is scheduled for March.

According to the criteria set by the CBSE for the summative assessment, the question papers for the test will be based on the guidelines that were circulated by the board earlier. According to the CBSE, summative assessment will be in the form of a pen-paper test conducted by the schools. In order to ensure uniformity, CBSE is sending question papers to schools in February 2010. Schools can decide the duration of the test (it can vary from three hours to three and half hours). CBSE said that evaluation of answer scripts will be done by the school teachers on the basis of the marking scheme provided by the Board and that there will be random verification of the assessment procedures by CBSE staff.

The decision to send questions is a welcome move. Though the evaluation at the school level may dilute the standard and uniformity , at least in the beginning , said Ashok Pandey, principal of Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar.

source: TOI