The Union Education Ministry on Wednesday launched its new curriculum framework under which board examinations will be held twice a year and students will be permitted to retain the best score, NDTV reported.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in line with the New Education Policy introduced in 2020.

The ministry said that in order to make board examinations easier than the current “high-stakes” practice, the exams will assess the achievement of competencies rather than focusing on months of coaching and memorising.

“Board exams will be offered at least twice a year to ensure students have enough time and opportunity to perform well,” the ministry said. “Students can then appear for a board exam in subjects they have completed and feel ready for. They will also be allowed to retain the best score.”

Under the new framework, subjects in Class 11 and Class 12 will not be restricted to streams and students will get the flexibility to choose from them, ANI reported.

“School boards are to develop capacities to offer ‘on demand’ exams in due course of time,” the education ministry said. “Besides board exam test developers and evaluators, they will have to go through university-certified courses before taking up this work.”

Class 11 and Class 12 students will need to study two languages and at least one of them must be Indian.