Several schools in the national capital have raised concerns over the alternative evaluation method issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Class 10 students, after their board exams were cancelled owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, and termed it unfair. An association of over 400 Delhi private schools has written to the CBSE requesting it to review the marking scheme.
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.
The action committee of unaided recognised private schools in Delhi on May 13 wrote to CBSE saying marking students on the basis of school’s best performance in the last three year would be “impractical” since the number of students in a batch in different schools may differ between single digits to almost a thousand.
{{/usCountry}}The action committee of unaided recognised private schools in Delhi on May 13 wrote to CBSE saying marking students on the basis of school’s best performance in the last three year would be “impractical” since the number of students in a batch in different schools may differ between single digits to almost a thousand.
{{/usCountry}}“Further the circumstances in which exams have been conducted are greatly different. The proposed calculation formulae are unfair for high-performing students in underperforming schools. Also, it gives undue benefit to underperforming students in high-performing schools. Thus, it is not fair across schools but within the school also,” said S K Bhattacharya, president of the association in the letter.
Officials at several government schools also raised similar concerns. A principal of a government girls senior secondary school in west Delhi, who wished not to be named, said the board has picked 2017-18 as their reference academic year. “Our result was 65% and around 126 students had scored below 26% marks in science in our school for that year. However, this year, in the pre-board exams, only 38 students have scored below 26% marks in the subject. A similar situation is there in other subjects as well. How can we reduce the marks of so many students when they already know the score of each and every unit test and pre-boards?” the principal said.
CBSE officials said that they have set the “most practical” formula for evaluation. “We have reports from schools wherein students scored much higher marks in online exams in comparison to how they performed when they were called for offline pre-board exams. What could be the solution to this situation? CBSE has given schools the best possible solution,” said a senior CBSE official.