Ahmedabad: GSHSEB announces new examination format

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Board (GSHSEB) has announced that it will adopt a new examination format for both class X and XII. The new format will be introduced in the class X examination and the class XII science stream from the 2019-20 academic year.
In the earlier format, 50 per cent marks in the class X and class XII (science) were set aside for OMR (Optical Marks Reader), where students had to answer multiple choice questions.The OMR system has been abolished from this academic year.
Under the new system of grading in the class X and class XII (science) examination, class X exams papers will have 16 marks allotted to completing sentences (filling up blanks), 36 marks for short questions, 19 marks for long questions and six marks for essay-type questions. The new format of examinations has been announced for eight subjects of class X and seven subjects of class XII (science), board officials said.
Board officials said the problem with the earlier OMR examination system was students resorting to mass copying. The OMR system also discouraged students from writing longer answers and their language skills were not getting developed, officials added.