From next year in UP: internship for Class 9, 11 students, 30% MCQs in Class 10 subjects

Starting 2023, 30 per cent of the questions in all subjects for class X board exams will be multiple-choice questions and students will be given optical mark recognition sheets (OMR) to answer them, officials said.

They also said that the same pattern will be implemented for class XII UP Board exams from 2025.

With the aim of boosting students’ employment prospects, the board will also be introducing a new programme, wherein students of class IX and XI will get internships.

UP Board secretary Divyakant Shukla on Thursday said, “Thirty per cent of all questions in examinations will be objective and OMR sheets will be given to students to answer them. We have already used this format in class IX examinations this time, and from next year, the same will be replicated in class X examinations too.”

The decisions were taken during a meeting presided by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday where senior officials gave presentations on how the state board’s functioning could be improved.

A senior official said that the details of the internship programme are yet to be chalked out. “It will be too early to say how the internship programme will be run. In the coming time, we will release more details about it. The idea is to make students ready for employment and improve their prospects of getting a job.

With these internships, class IX and XI students will become familiar with different kinds of jobs,” said the official.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister also instructed officials to ensure that all schools in the state have Wi-Fi connections, smart classrooms, a tracking system for students and biometric attendance for students over the next 100 days.

Adityanath also called for the launch of an online career counselling portal ‘Pankh’ to guide students. He also directed officials to ensure that an online monitoring categorisation facility and an e-library are developed at the earliest in schools.

The chief minister also said that an action plan should be prepared to improve learning outcomes, increase enrolments and decrease the dropout rate in the state. He directed officials to set up career counselling cells in all education institutions, officials said.

“He also said there was a need to link Sanskrit with technology, and for that 180-hour certification and 360-hour diploma programmes should be launched,” they added. Adityanath said that vacancies for all teaching posts should be filled up immediately, and that appointments should be made for the post of yoga teachers across the state.

Meanwhile, the state Higher Education department has come up with a 10-point grading system for three undergraduate courses – BA, BSc and BCom for the academic session of 2022-23.

Officials said that the move is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP), and aims to assess students based on their learning goals.
A government spokesperson said that private universities in the state have been instructed to follow the grading system.

Officials said under the new system, students scoring between 91 to 100 will be given a grade point 10 and grade letter O (Outstanding).

Students scoring marks between 81 to 90 will be given grade point 9, and A+. Similarly, students scoring between 71 to 80 will get grade point 8 and A.

“Other grade points will be accompanied by a B+, B or C and students scoring between 33 and 40 will get grade point 4 and P (Pass). Students getting less than 32 will get grade point 0 and will get an F (Fail) along with it,” they added.