School or board exam? Debate prevails

Ananya Guru, 15, a Class 10 student of Kendriya Vidyalaya INS Hamla, Malad, is regretting her decision of opting for the school exam instead of the CBSE board exam. Reetika Subramanian reports.

Ananya Guru, 15, a Class 10 student of Kendriya Vidyalaya INS Hamla, Malad, is regretting her decision of opting for the school exam instead of the CBSE board exam.

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“I compared the question papers and found that the board exams were a lot simpler,” rued Guru, who scored a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 9. I’m happy with my score no doubt, but will have to continue studying in my own school for the next two years,” she added.

For the first time, Class 10 CBSE students were given the option to take the school final exam instead of a board exam to reduce the stress. In Maharashtra, 15,969 students appeared for the board exams, while 5,680 students opted for the school-conducted final exams.

The papers of students who took the board exam were evaluated by external examiners while answer papers of those taking the school exams were corrected by their own school teachers.

Unlike Guru, Sanjita Sethi, 15, a student of DAV Panvel, thinks that the CBSE board exams that she took only caused some undue stress.

“Every school had different sets of papers and at DAV, the school exams were much easier than the boards,” said Sethi, who scored a CGPA of 9.8 and plans to pursue computer science. “Moreover, by now my admissions would have been sorted and I would not have to worry about my junior college.”

“Since we were in the first batch, we had no precedent whom we could follow,” said Aniket Pandey, 15, who scored a CGPA of 9.4.

“There were so many opinions at that point of time and I decided to take the school exam after being convinced that my grades were in the hands of my own subject teachers,” added Pandey.