Science scores suffer practical blow

The total number of students scoring a 100 in science and technology has fallen drastically from 287 to just 6 this year. But more students returned home with merit certificates this year, reports Swaha Sahoo.

The total number of students scoring a 100 in science and technology has fallen drastically from 287 to just 6 this year.

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In Delhi, the number has gone down from four to just one.

But the number of students scoring a merit certificate — awarded to students scoring the maximum marks in a given subject — in the sciences has gone up from 1,549 to 1,894.

Teachers in Delhi said the result was on expected lines.

“One of the reasons behind the fall is the inclusion of Class IX practical questions in Class X,” said Mala Gupta, Biology teacher at Springdales School, Pusa Road.

The CBSE had introduced the Class IX component in order to make the question paper more application-based and student friendly.

“Students tend to focus only on Class X syllabus and many also lose their Class IX practical files once they are through with them,” Gupta said. “That must be the reason why students have failed to score a 100 per cent in Science.”

CBSE chairperson Vineet Joshi said the move was made to increase emphasis on practical skills.

“The National Curriculum Framework talks about learning by doing and we have attempted to enforce that,” said Joshi.

“The number of 100s is just a matter of chance and not an indicator of performance. I believe the number of students scoring above 90 per cent has gone up and that is good news.”

Teachers said various reasons contributed to the poor performance in science this year. There was one question of three marks that was out of paper.

An increase in the application-based components in the question paper was also a reason behind the decrease in the number of 100s, said Keshav Aggarwal, teacher at Pyramid Classes, a coaching institute.