Now you can answer exams in vernacular

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) during their board meeting passed a resolution that all students of the vernacular medium, barring those pursuing science, can now answer their exam questions in their own language.

According to GSHSEB secretary Dr KR Zansrukiya, "Students in the science stream pursuing further studies have to continue studying in Gujarati, English or Hindi. Hence, to make things easier for them and their future career, we have not made any changes for them with respect to answering examination papers.

The rest of the students can answer in Sindhi, Urdu, Telugu, Marathi and Tamil, in addition to Gujarati, English and Hindi."
Dr Zansrukiya further explained that for the science stream there were only 133 students across different languages, a factor which could have affected the confidentiality of the exams. Hence, the board decided that these students must answer in Gujarati, English or Hindi.

During the meeting it was also discussed by GSHSEB members that the current Comprehensive Evaluation Assessment programme of grade nine should also be done for grade 10 students from the year 2012. Under this evaluation system, 30% weightage is given to school marks and 70% to board marks.

However, this point will be discussed with the examination committee and then a final decision will be taken.

Furthermore, since grade 8 is now included in the primary section, the technical, post-basic, vocational and commerce subjects which were taught from this grade, will now be evenly distributed between grades 9 and 10. The textbook department has been instructed to design the textbooks accordingly, starting 2012.