EXAMINATION
The National Open School was vested on 20th October, 1990 with the authority to examine and certify students registered with it upto pre- degree level courses. Prior to this, examinations for NOS students were conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education The NOS conducted its first examinations in January, 1991.
During the year, NOS conducted two main examinations of May and No- vember, 1992 and two Computer Marked Assessments in June and December, 1992. The examinations results were declared in eight weeks.
Departmental Set-up The department is headed by the Controller of Examinations who is assisted by one Deputy Director and two Assistant Directors. The Deputy Director reported to the Controller of Examinations and was responsible for admissions, conduct of examinations, processing and declaration of results, certification and other related work. Of the two Assistant Directors, one reported directly to Controller of Examination and assisted him in confidential and secret work. The other Assistant Director assisted the Deputy Director in the organisation and conduct of examinations besides admissions.
The Examination Department consists of the following Units, each under the charge of a Section Officer excepting Admission Cell which is under the charge of a Desk Officer-
i) Admission Cell,
ii) Examination (Outside Delhi),
iii) Examination (Delhi),
iv) Marks and Migration,
v) Answer Book Cell,
vi) Secret Unit and
vii) Confidential Unit
Computer Marked Assessment (CMA) For candidates admitted from July, 1990 onwards, Computer Marked Assessment was introduced in all the subjects except in Typewriting (Hindi/ English) at Secondary stage and Typewriting (Hindi/English), Stenography (Hindi/English) and Secretarial Practice at Senior Secondary stage. The main objective of the CMA was to monitor learning levels of registered students and to serve as an instrument of continuous assessment, which would also contribute to the final award for Secondary and Sr. Secondary students.
The minimum pass marks in the CMA is 25%. The candidates of the Bridge Course after passing the CMA with atleast one language, Mathematics, Science and Social Science become eligible to seek admission to the Secondary course of NOS. For Secondary course candidates, the CMA serves as eligibility condition. The eligibility criteria of passing CMA was made applicable for Senior Secondary course as well, in case of students admitted in July, 1992.
The response sheets of the CMA has provision for answering upto six subjects on it. These are evaluated by using Optical Mark Reader and the results declared within a month.
The number of candidates who apeared in Computer Marked Assessments during the year is given in Table 13.
Examinations The Examination forms received from Accredited Institutions were checked manually from Admission data and cummulative gazette. The data of candidates registered from July 1990
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Table 13: Number of Candidates Appeared in CMA
June, 1992 December, 1992
Bridge Course 706 166
Secondary 3,750 30,107
Sr. Secondary 1,151 19,166
Total 5,607 49,439
onwards were entered in the in-house computer. The eligibility of a candidate for subjects is checked through a computer programme.
After feeding all the data in the computer, the requirement of answer scripts, continuation sheets and question papers for each centre is determined.
Centre material which includes roll number-wise list of candidates, subject-wise list of candidates, list of candidates appearing for practical examinations, attendance sheets, guidelines for Centre Superintendents and for practical examinations etc. is forwarded to each examination centre well in advance. The advance amount is also remitted to cover expenses for the smooth conduct of examinations.
Observers are appointed for outside Delhi examination centres to check the fairness in the conduct of examination whereas individual inspections and raid parties are sent for Delhi examination centres.
Total number of 62,014 candidates appeared in May and November,1992 examinations. Of these, 38,190 appeared in Secondary and 23,824 appeared in Senior Secondary examinations.
Question Papers The question papers are set, moderated, translated, printed and despatched to various Banks for their safe custody with utmost secrecy. The question papers of each subject are handed over to the Centre Superintendent by the Bank Manager on the date of Examination of the subject.
Answer Books Answerbooks are received from the examination centres by hand in case of Delhi Centres and by post from others. The scripts are counted, compared with attendance sheets and passed on to the Chief Secrecy Officer for secrecy work after keeping a proper record. The Chief Secrecy Officer passes them for evaluation after secrecy.
Evaluation The evaluation of answerscripts is being done at 6 centres in different parts of the country. The evaluators are given a time schedule. Evaluation is done under the supervision of coordinators appointed by NOS at each evaluation centre. A sample checking of evaluated scripts is done by the Team Leaders and Chief Examiner to ensure standards and uniformity. A strict check is kept on all the evaluation centres to ensure that the evaluated answerscripts and award lists are received back at NOS within stipulated time frame. This is necessary to ensure timely declaration of results.
The marking scheme was finalised for each subject after standardisation meeting held on the day after the examination with 6 to 8 subject experts including paper setters to ensure uniformity in evaluation.
Feed back proforma from the Evaluators, Team Leaders and Chief Examin- ers are utilised to ensure that standards are maintained from year to year.
A total number of 1,29,003 answerscripts for May, 1992 and 50,262 answerscripts for November, 1992 were got evaluated at different evaluation centres all over India.
Results On declaration, results are communi-
Table 14: Number of Candidates Passed
Examination No. Passed
Secondary Sr. Secondary
Jan.-1991 5,050 3,730
June-1991 5,388 5,185
Nov.-1991 3,622 3,055
May -1992 6,700 4,736
Nov.-1992 3,328 3,716
Total 24,088 20,422
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cated to the AIs. The marksheets of the candidates are also sent along with the result gazette. The certificates of the candidates are printed within a month of declaration of results and sent to the AIs, or directly to the candidates by Registered Post, as the case may be.
Total number of 44,510 students have passed Secondary and Senior Secondary Examinations since January, 1991 examination and awarded certificates as detailed in Table 14.
Subject-wise Pass Percentage Subjectwise pass percentage for Secondary and Senior Secondary Course is given below (Table 15 and 16):
Table 15 : Secondary Course-Subjectwise Pass Percentage
Subject May 1992 November 1992
Appeared Pass % Appeared Pass %
Hindi 12039 63.7 3527 57.5
English 16202 52.4 6076 33.7
Mathematics 8159 33.3 4036 23.2
Science 8072 45.7 3622 31.8
Social Science 14292 35.2 7210 24.0
Economics 9045 53.1 3381 47.5
Commerce 4008 53.4 1248 34.7
Home Science 6803 66.0 1998 44.4
Table 16: Sr. Secondary Course-Subjectwise Pass Percentage
Subject May 1992 November 1992
Appeared Pass % Appeared Pass %
Hindi 7299 59.6 2949 56.2
English 9230 58.0 3703 39.8
Mathematics 1848 27.9 1061 23.6
Physics with Prac. 1953 34.4 1039 19.1
Chemistry with Prac. 1840 32.7 1024 29.8
Biology with Prac. 1072 48.0 480 36.5
History 5540 46.1 2841 39.2
Geography 1918 58.2 923 44.2
Political Science 5635 57.9 2415 53.0
Economics 4402 53.02 2164 37.7
Commerce 1833 64.7 759 44.1
Accountancy 1702 43.5 826 26.0
H. Science with Prac. 1854 69.3 887 76.3
For Secondary Courses, the pass percentage for Hindi and Home Science was above 60% and for English, Economics and Commerce above 50%, in May, 1992 examination. In Nov. 1992 examination pass percentage in Hindi only was above 50%. The lowest pass percentage was in Mathematics in both the examinations for Secondary Courses. Subjectwise pass percentage in Secondary Course is presented in Figure 12.
For Senior Secondary Courses, the pass percentage in Commerce and Home Science was above 60% and for Hindi, English, Geography, Political Science and Economics above 50% in May, 1992 examination. The lowest pass percentage of 27.9% was in Mathematics in above examination. In Nov.1992 examination, the pass percentage in Home Science was above 75% and in Hindi and Political Science above 50%. The lowest pass percentage of 19.1% was for Physics in the above examination. Subjectwise pass percentage in Senior Secondary Course is presented in Figure 13.
Marks and Migration Following tasks are performed
* Issue of the pass certificates of the candidates to the AIs/candidates after each examination.
* Processing the request of the candidates for corrections in name of the candidates, father's name, date of birth and results.
* Issue of Migration Certificates/Provisonal Pass Certificates.
* Issue of duplicate certificates.
* Verification of the certificates on request from other institutions.
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