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Mahesh

13/08/25 08:32 AM IST

CBSE’s plan for open-book exams

In News 
  • The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will introduce open-book assessments (OBE) in Class 9 from 2026-27, after a pilot study showed strong “teacher support” for the idea.
Open Book Exams 
  • An open-book exam allows students to use approved resources like textbooks, class notes, or other specified material during an assessment, rather than mainly testing memory.
  • The challenge lies in knowing where to look, making sense of the material, and applying it to the problem at hand. In a science paper, for instance, the facts might be in front of you, but the real test is linking them together to reach a conclusion.
  • These exams evaluate whether students can interpret ideas effectively, instead of just repeating them.
History of open book exam format 
  • Open-book exams have been around for decades. In fact, Hong Kong introduced them as early as 1953.
  • A 2004 Hong Kong study by Ming-Yin Chan and Kwok-Wai Mui noted that “first-time OBE takers viewed the format positively but prepared shallowly: students had a positive perception towards open-book examinations.” 
  • It found that many students spent only 10 to 15 minutes reading the questions and locating material, usually starting with the instructor’s handouts before moving to one or two textbooks.
  • Some condensed the lecturer’s notes or borrowed “worked-example” books to navigate the paper.
  • Between 1951 and 1978, studies in the US and the UK allowed textbooks, notebooks and lecture notes in open-book trials.
  • They used formats ranging from short answers to multiple-choice and essays across different university courses.
  • The overall findings of these open-book exams were largely the same with a positive impact on internalization rather than memorisation… weaker students did better in open-book examinations and were found to measure different abilities from those measured in traditional examinations.
New Concept in India 
  • In 2014, CBSE launched the Open Text-Based Assessment (OTBA) to steer students away from rote learning.
  • It applied to Class 9 for Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science, and to Class 11 final exams for subjects like Economics, Biology and Geography.
  • Students were given reference material four months in advance.
  • But by 2017-18, CBSE dropped the initiative, concluding it had not succeeded in developing the “critical abilities” it was meant to promote.
  • Open-book formats have a stronger presence in collegiate education.
  • The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approved their use in engineering colleges in 2019 after an expert panel’s recommendation.
  • During the pandemic, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Aligarh Muslim University used OBEs, while IIT Delhi, IIT Indore and IIT Bombay ran them online.
  • Delhi University’s first OBE took place in August 2020; the last was in March 2022. The university returned to physical exams in January 2022 but allowed one more round for students admitted in November 2021.
  • More recently, Kerala’s higher education reforms commission has proposed using the format only for internal or practical exams.
Why CBSE approving now? 
  • The move is part of a larger shift in the way schools approach assessment.
  • While the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 does not name open-book tests, it calls for moving away from rote memorisation and towards competency-based learning.
  • The goal is for students to grasp concepts, understand processes, and explain how they apply them.
  • The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCERT) makes a similar point.
  • It notes that current assessments, at best, “measure rote learning” and, at worst, “create fear.”
  • To change that, it calls for exam formats that can work for different learning styles and give students feedback, while still aiming to improve overall learning outcomes.
Source- Indian Express 

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