Teachers point flaws in CBSE Class 10 pattern, say can’t be applied to Class 12
NEW DELHI: Teachers and students have begun voicing concerns over what could be the alternative evaluation mechanism for students of the Class 12, after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decided to scrap the annual school-graduating test due to the Covid-19 outbreak. One of the options on the table is following a formula in place for Class 10 students, but several stakeholders caution that the same yardstick cannot be used for senior students, for whom the scores could impact prospects of higher studies.
The Union government on Tuesday announced the cancellation of Class 12 CBSE board examination after discussions at a highlevel meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On May 1, the education board announced an assessment pattern for Class 10 students. This included two specific aspects: how an individual student’s final score will be calculated, and how the scores of all students will be standardised based on the school’s performance.
Individual student scores will be calculated on the basis of a student’s performance in a unit/periodic test, the half-yearly or midterm exam, and the pre-board examination. These together will account for 80 marks while the rest 20 will be based on internal assessments that were likely completed by most schools as part of the usual board exam evaluation in the run-up to March.
But, in particular, it is the standardisation formula that has invited concerns. Standardisation -- meant to ensure results are in “consonance” with a school’s performance -- will need to be done by selecting a reference year from the past three years, when students on average scored the highest marks.
When the final marks of the students are drawn up, the schools will need to ensure that the average marks in each subject are within 2 marks of the subjectwise average reference year marks, and that the overall average of the five core subjects do not surpass the total in the reference year. Several teachers and students called these policies flawed, saying that they are unfair to meritorious high scorers whose marks will likely be standardised downwards based on the average performance of their school.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday issued a notice to CBSE over a plea filed by an NGO, Justice For All, which said that the moderation policy would be “an injustice to the students as the performance of school [is] not relatable in any manner with the performance of the student”.
Experts also pointed out that unit tests and mid-terms are not uniformly marked among schools, with some using tougher yardsticks in their school tests, as compared to the Board’s marking.
Tania Joshi, principal of The Indian School, said: “Since we are only allowed a variation of plus or minus two marks, this leaves high-performing students at a disadvantage as internal tests are marked more strictly than boards. Our past data has shown us that in an 80-mark paper, more students score in the range of 70-80 in their board exams as compared to the pre-board exam of same marks.”
In effect, this will leave students in a school that normally follows a harsher policy in unit- and midterm tests at a disadvantage to peers where the assessments may be more liberal.
Joshi pointed to the standardisation problem, saying schools can only have the same number of students in different ranges of marks for different subjects as its reference year. Which means, if there were 10 students who scored over 90% in the reference year, there cannot be more than 10 students in the over-90% score band this year as well.
Ameeta Mohan, principal of Amity International School in Pushp Vihar, said that though the moderation policy is necessary, the board could provide additional relaxation in the cap for highest marks. “There have been cases in Class 12 in the past, where a student got 33% in their pre-boards but scored in the range of 65-70% in the final exams. This is why we recommend that the cap of increase in marks [from reference year] be increased from 2 to 4 in Class 12,” she said.
Many schools that endorsed the existing scheme said it needs to be tweaked for Class 12.
RP Singh, principal of RPVV Surajmal Vihar, a top performing government school in the city, said: “Moderation policy has been in practice for long. My personal opinion is that Class 11 results should be considered for board results. Even while considering Class 10 marks, CBSE must consider only the main subjects of Class 10 for Class 12 results.”
School administrators pointed to several other reasons why the Class 10 method cannot be used for assessment of Class 12 students as the school-leaving students were often also engaged in appearing for college admission tests during their pre-board exam season – a pressure that their younger peers do not have.
Mena Mittle, vice-principal at Modern Public School in Shalimar Bagh, said the introduction of multiple attempts for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) was also a factor. “A Class 10 student takes his pre-boards more seriously than a Class 12 student who has to appear for various competitive examinations in the same period for higher education. If we were to give 40% weightage to preboard exams, school results will fall drastically affecting high-performing students as well. Schools cannot adopt the Class 10 evaluation pattern for Class 12 students,” she said.
“Students tend to give their best for the board exams and not internals. So if we are assessed on the basis of our Class 12 internals, it may affect our grades,” said Twisha Kacker, a Class 12 student at The Indian School. “In Class 12, marks of no subject should be awarded on the basis of average marks of other subjects,” Mohan said.