BHUBANESWAR: As the state gears up to hold annual examinations for students of classes V and VIII next year, it has decided to prepare the test module in a manner that evaluates them based on their conceptual understanding of subjects, critical thinking and application of knowledge in real-life situations.

The School and Mass Education (SME) department has recently come out with guidelines to hold the annual examinations for both the grades, with focus on both the internal assessments and the final exam.

For Class V, 60 per cent marks will be derived from internal assessment and 40 pc from annual exams.

Likewise for Class VIII, 50 pc marks will be calculated from internal assessment and another 50 pc from annual exams.

The annual examinations will include both oral (10 marks) and written test (40 marks) for Class V students, while for those in Class Vlll, the assessment will be entirely based on a written (50 marks) examination.

For both the grades, the questions will be structured to assess different cognitive levels with emphasis on knowledge (15 marks), understanding of the subject (20 marks) and its application in real-life situations (15 marks).

A higher official of the department said examinations will adhere to a pre-defined difficulty ratio to ensure a balance assessment.

While 30 pc questions will be easier ones, 40 pc will be moderately difficult and another 30 pc will be difficult questions.

Earlier in July this year, the state government had announced that the new rule will be implemented from the 2025-26 academic session.

The department has decided to conduct the examinations for both the grades in February and declare the results by the last week of March.

The story is reported by Diana Sahu for The New Indian Express