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Maharashtra state board students would suffer once orals are scrapped, say experts
From 2019, students appearing for their Class 10 boards will have no orals/practical exams in subjects other than Maths and Science and will have to give written exams for the entire 100 marks for other subjects. The education department had stated that the decision was taken in order to increase the difficulty level of the state board exams to bring them at par with the other boards.
The state education department’s decision to scrap oral exams for subjects except Maths and Science in Class 10 is being questioned by educationists across the state.
From 2019, students appearing for their Class 10 boards will have no orals/practical exams in subjects other than Maths and Science and will have to give written exams for the entire 100 marks for other subjects. The education department had stated that the decision was taken in order to increase the difficulty level of the state board exams to bring them at par with the other boards.
Educationists however say that the decision would put students from the state board in a loss as they would not be able to score as good as their counterparts from the other boards. “With 100 marks written exams, scoring would be more difficult for students in Class 10. With lower scores, they cannot compete with students from the CBSE and ICSE boards who have dedicated marks for internals. This would deprive them of seats in some of the prominent colleges in the state,” said Jalindar Sarode, Secretary, Shikshak Bharati, a teachers’ organisation who has written to the education department on the issue.
Continuing its policy from 2017, the CBSE has allowed combined passing of 33% in internals and written exams for Class 10 students even this year. With all the other boards giving 20-40 % weightage to internal exams, state board students would be at a loss this year. At a time when the competition to get through top junior colleges is so fierce especially in cities like Mumbai, students from the state board might not get an edge over those from non-state board backgrounds” said Usha Shinde, a teacher from a suburban school.
This year, students from the state board would have to appear for 20 mark practicals for Maths and Science while all the other subjects would be graded on the basis of a 100 mark written exam.
Naina Singh, a city based parent said that the policy would discourage students from the city from going to state board schools. “If the state board would not help students score at par with their counterparts, why would students go to these schools in the coming days?”.
