New Delhi: 'Flunked' or 'Failed' written with a deep red pen with an exclamation mark at the end on the academic report card of a class IX and X student would soon be history as declared by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Besides negating the prevailing system of awarding marks, the CBSE board has also decided to prevent any class IX or X student to be declared as 'flunked'.

Instead, the board will allow them three more attempts to reach the grade before entering into the next academic session.
If the student persists to fail the examination, the board will consider his performance in extracurricular activities and sports, which means, the captain of a school cricket team might fail to score in his math's exam but his proficiency in the sport will promote him into the next class.

Assessing a child's performance too will be revamped, that is, if a child fares poorly in his written exams he will be given a chance to improve his grades via projects or an oral test in order to see if he has an understanding of the concepts.

Furthermore, the board, apart from making the exams optional and introducing the new continuous and comprehensive evaluation system in classes IX and X, now has asked the school authorities to show IX and X students their answer sheets and take their feedback before the final grade is awarded.

Another wind of change that follows is that now the class IX and X term papers will be set by the board so that the level of question papers remain same throughout the country.

Students who wish to test themselves on a higher scale can opt for a proficiency test in the subject of their desired field, where they will face questions at the level of an Olympiad.