CBSE may do away with marks spike in board exams

WORKING GROUP ALSO SAID THAT MARK SHEETS SHOULD SPECIFY IF A STUDENT PASSED DUE TO GRACE MARKS

Spiking of marks in 10th and 12 class board exams is likely to stop from next year. However, school boards will continue with a moderation policy to remove ambiguity and difficulty level in different question sets and offer a level playing field in the evaluation process.

Mark sheets of students will mention whether they have been awarded grace marks.

These suggestions have been made by the inter-board working group headed by the CBSE’s outgoing chairman RK Chaturvedi.

A decision was taken regarding this in a meeting on August 28. The recommendations will now be sent to the Union HRD ministry for adoption by various states.

To ensure uniformity in the question papers of various boards, the group also decided that CBSE will develop model sample question papers that will be circulated to all the boards.

“The sample question papers will help states decide how many questions should be difficult, how many should be easy and what type of questions should be used. This will bring in uniformity in the evaluation system,” said one of the group members.

There was consensus among the members to end spiking of marks as it is not a true reflection of a student’s performance. “In the meet, it was decided that the decisions taken earlier related to moderation are accepted by all the group members. The suggestions are being sent to HRD ministry,” said a source.

The group has also suggested that moderation will continue to ensure appropriate compensation is provided to students in case there are differences in the difficulty levels of question papers and evaluation process.

However, state boards will have to post their moderation policy on their websites in a transparent manner. Sources further said that grace marks will continue and though the mark sheet will specify if a student has passed due to grace marks, it will not mention the extra marks awarded to him or her.

“Students who pass without grace marks will at least get some priority through this. At the same time rather than failing a student who narrowly misses the marks such students will also be passed,” said one of the members of the group.

The moderation policy allows board to give students extra marks. But some state boards used the system to increase marks of their students, spiking the overall pass percentage and thereby triggering widespread resentment.