As the ICSE and CBSE board exams begin on Wednesday, this year’s Class 10 CBSE batch of students will get grades instead of marks in their marksheets. From next year, as part of the board’s reform process, students will have the option of not taking the exam altogether.
“Our fingers are
crossed. We are waiting to see what will happen and hopefully it will be alright,” said Avnita Bir, principal of RN Podar School at Santacruz.
Since this is the first time that Class 10 students will get grades, CBSE school principals are unsure how the move will affect admissions to junior college.
Students will be given grades corresponding to marks brackets. For instance, the marks range of 91-100 will correspond to ‘A1’, 81-90 to ‘A2’ and so on.
“Only a few of our students leave school after class 10. I am sure the government will ensure there is a carefully spelled out policy in place to make sure students don’t have a problem,” said Apeejay Kharghar principal Indu Mathur. “Students are less anxious thanks to the new grading system,” said Dr K B Kushal, director of Maharashtra’s DAV schools.
Students also appeared calm.
“It’s going fine, I’m not getting too tense,” said Jay Vora, a Class 10 student of RN Podar School, who will appear for the first compulsory exam — social studies — on Friday. “But if they are going to give us our marks on request anyway, then what’s the point in grading?” he asked.
ICSE students will appear for the English language exam on Wednesday. “There’s not much you can study for a language paper, so I’m relaxed,” said Arhana Bose, a Class 10 student of Jamnabai Narsee School.