Open Book Tests to be the New Exams?
In a latest announcement, much to the respite of students, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has planned to contemplate and experiment with the idea of having Open Book Examinations (OBE) for students of Classes 9 to 12.
Aligning with the ideals of the New Education Policy 2023, this paradigm aims to make education more insightful, practical and less pressurising for students. National Curriculum Framework launched last year aims to provide a holistic, skill-based multidisciplinary learning experience to every student, regardless of their background.
Thus, foster ubiquitous distribution of educational resources to lessen inequalities and build an empowered and enlightened nation.
As per the sources, a testing of the system will happen in selected school.For the students of classes 9th and 10th, there will be pilot run of the Open Book Test for English, Mathematics and Science. While students of classes 11 and 12 will attempt the test for English, Mathematics and Biology.
The exploratory evaluation will asses the time taken to complete the test by the students and stakeholders’ response.
OBE: A step to refurbished learning
The test, unlike the traditional tests, seek to gauge a child’s conceptual understanding rather than the exam being a mere assessment of memory. The students are permitted to carry their textbooks, notes or reference material in the examination hall and seek information from them while answering the paper.
Initially, it might seem that the closed-book tests are tougher and more stressful that the open-book tests. However, OBE tend to be more intellectually challenging. They provoke mental prowess in systematically applying the concepts and phenomenons studied in the book.
The understanding and awareness of the subject is displayed when the student has to implement the cognitive comprehension into a complex sphere of interpretation and application. 
The preliminary testing will be conducted in November-December in 2024. As per the experience of this experiment, its future scopes will be determined after proper analysis of review, feedback, efficacy and feasibility.
If found implementable and beneficial, then we can expect the Board to adopt this scheme of examination across all its schools for classes 9 to 12.
Making Learning Profound and Practical
OBE assessment will seek to evaluate a child’s higher order thinking skills and will opt for a more analytical, applicable and critical mode of examination. Creative thinking, problem solving, interdisciplinary focus etc will be the top priority of the proposed mechanism.
The planning and development of the novel means of examination will have June as its deadline as the Board intends to wrap up the pre-trial tasks until then.
The Board is also consulting Delhi University (DU) for the same. DU already has OBE occurring in its academical calendar since August 2020.
The ending of the last year had the officials discussing the requirement to devise high-quality textbooks for children to better suit the new testing methodology. This would require a modernization in the curriculum as well and progression towards a more skill-based meta learning.
