‘Tweaking Class 10 marking plan will hurt our image’: CBSE tells high court

In an affidavit filed before the court, the central board defended its assessment scheme devised for Class 10 students against a petition by an NGO which alleged that aspects of the evaluation plan were unreasonable, illogical and punitive for the students.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday told the Delhi high court that any direction to the board for tweaking its policy of evaluation or publication of results will hamper its credibility, besides being disadvantageous to the students as well.

The Class 10 board exams were cancelled on April 15 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. (HT file photo)

In an affidavit filed before the court, the central board defended its assessment scheme devised for Class 10 students against a petition by an NGO which alleged that aspects of the evaluation plan were unreasonable, illogical and punitive for the students.

The Class 10 board exams were cancelled on April 15 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The board announced an assessment scheme for the students on May 1. However, several teachers and students called the policies flawed, saying that they were unfair to meritorious high scorers whose marks will likely be standardised downwards based on the average performance of their school.

An NGO, Justice For All, challenged the assessment in the high court. According to its petition, the moderation policy will be “an injustice to the students as the performance of school [is] not relatable in any manner with the performance of the student”.

In its affidavit, the board said that in no manner any school will be able to take undue benefit from the policy. It said that if schools ignore the need to ensure that the average marks in each subject are within 2 marks of the subject-wise average reference year marks, according to the petitioner, it will damage the credibility and image of the CBSE across the globe resulting in disadvantage to the students in future.

On May 1, the CBSE released a special marking scheme for Class 10 students stating that their results will be tabulated based on their performance in unit tests, half-yearly examination, and pre-board examination conducted by schools.

The board, however, said each school should keep a check on inflation of marks and award marks in consonance with its best performance in Class 10 in the last three academic years--2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20.

The selected year will be the reference year for the schools, and subject-wise marks allotted by the schools for 2021 will be within a range of + or - 2 marks obtained by the school in the subject in the reference year. The board has also said that the overall average marks of the schools for 2021 should not exceed the overall average marks obtained by it in the reference year.

However, a plea by an NGO Justice for All through advocates Khagesh Jha and Shikha Sharma Bagga challenged the policy saying that the moderating of the average marks assessed by the school, based on the historical performance of the previous average result of the school, in terms of the best overall performance would be injustice to the students as the performance of school is not relatable in any manner with the performance of the student.”

It has also said that moderating the marks in consonance with the overall average score of the district, national and state average “was absolutely unreasonable, illogical and punitive for the students of a school which would appear in the board exams for the first time”, with no previous data of performance. The NGO has alleged that it can also lead to the manipulation of marks and exploitation, extortion of the students and parents.

Defending its scheme through an affidavit, CBSE has said that the policy has been prepared by a team of experts from the schools, CBSE and it has been kept in mind that no school should be able to do injustice with the students and marks be awarded based on the learning of the student.

“Also, the result should not be more than the best result of the past three results. Accordingly, while allowing moderation to the result committee, limits have been fixed. Responsibility has been given to the Result Committee for ensure just, fair and reliable result. Similar policy with extended liberty has been extended in Class-XII policy which has already been approved by the Supreme Court,” the CBSE said.

It said that the petitioner had failed to show “any ex-facie perversity or illegality in the process adopted in the evaluation policy”.

“…there is neither any illegality in the Evaluation Policy for Class X nor there is any arbitrariness in the Wednesbury sense or unreasonableness or illegality,” the board said.

It also said that school management has no role to play in evaluation of students which has to be done by the Result Committee having external members as well adding that there are various checks in the Evaluation Policy for Class X in the form of verification of records by CBSE.

It contended that the record would be sealed under the signature o f all members of the Result Committee, kept in the safe custody of the principal.

“Further, the said Evaluation Policy provides that in cases where the school deliberately indulges in practices that are not consistent with fair, unbiased and objective practices of assessment, the answering respondent will take serious actions against such schools including action of disaffiliating the said school and/or imposing penalty against the school,” the reply read.