The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has approved a proposal to introduce open-book assessments for Class 9 final exams from the 2026-27 academic session after a pilot study, Indian Express reported.

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As per the report, the CBSE’s governing body approved the proposal for open book exams after a meeting held in June.

The report further stated that the proposal, in line with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSC) 2023 and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, involves open-book assessments for Class 9 covering subjects like language, mathematics, science and social science.

The proposal for open book assessment was discussed during the curriculum committee meeting of CBSE in November 2023 and was approved last year.

As per the proposal, a pilot run of open-book tests was to be conducted at select schools for English, Mathematics, and Science for Classes 9 and 10 and English, Mathematics, and Biology for Classes 11 and 12. This was to gauge the stakeholders’ response and the time taken by the students to complete such tests.

“The plan to carry out an OBE pilot in some schools was discussed as a part of the NCF recommendations. It could be used in internal exams to promote innovative thinking among students. However, it is only in an ideation phase, and there is no plan to adopt the OBE format in the CBSE class 10 and 12 board examination,” a senior CBSE official told Hindustan Times last year.

The Indian Express report stated that there are challenges in conducting open-book examinations, such as low success rates revealed in the pilot study, but teachers expressed optimism about the system due to its potential for fostering critical thinking. CBSE plans to develop standardised sample papers to ensure the quality of questions.

The board will create a framework for open-book internal exams for Class 9 and it is unlikely to be mandatory for schools, the Indian Express report said, citing an unnamed source.

This is not the first time the central board has experimented with open-book examinations. The board had introduced Open Text-Based Assessment (OTBA) for the exams of Classes 9 and 11 from 2014-15 to 2016-17. Back then, responses from the student community and academicians were negative.

What is an open-book exam?

Unlike traditional exams, open-book tests involve students having access to textbooks and other relevant resources to answer questions. These exams usually comprise conceptual and analytical questions that require students to read, interpret, and apply the concept.

Open-book exams are aimed at testing the higher-order thinking skills of students by stepping away from the regular mode of exams, allowing them to move away from rote learning to pass a test.