Govt thinking of re-introducing Class X board exam: Prakash Javadekar

New Delhi: Government is thinking of reintroducing compulsory class X board examination but if such a decision is taken, it will only be applied from the next academic year, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said.

"I want to start CBSE tenth board exams because all other students, other than CBSE are appearing for Board exams. But for CBSE, it is an option. So why?," Javadekar said while speaking at an interaction organised by FICCI.

The minister added that he got a lot of queries including from mediapersons, who also said they have children studying in CBSE schools and with March approaching they would need time to prepare.

"I said whatever I may change this year, will be implemented in 2017-18 cycle, not this year," Javadekar clarified.

Javadekar said that the government is also planning to bring in a new system under which educational institutions are regulated.

He added that apart from NAAC ratings, the ranking of the educational institution in the HRD ministry's NIRF rankings will be taken into consideration to grade them.

He said that for the best institutes there will be maximum autonomy and minimum regulation, for the next category there will be a balance of autonomy and regulation.

For those institutes which are a behind these two categories would have more regulation and less autonomy, Javadekar said.

Speaking at the interaction, Javadekar also said that quality is the biggest challenge in the education sector.

He also said that the selection of world-class educational institutions, on which the HRD ministry is working will be done in challenge mode.