Is negative score good?
The Madras HC observed that negative marking system will discourage students from making a calculated guess in their lives and restrict their risk aptitude
The students of 12th standard go through a very tough time. They are fully loaded with school and tuition classes, and have to face entrance examinations once the board exams are over. The students are more worried about the negative marking scheme of the entrance examinations. For every wrong answer, one mark will be deducted. The Madras High Court has ordered that the negative marking system should be abolished from competitive exams. Justice R. Mahadevan remarked that the system would discourage the students. The order was delivered on a petition filed in 2013 by Nelson Prabhakar, who couldn’t qualify IIT- JEE.
The court further stated that the students come from various strata of society and so, negative marking is against the principles of fairness, equality and equity. The system will discourage the students from making a calculated guess in their lives and restrict their risk aptitude, the court observed. “Everyone comes across a situation in life where decisions are taken purely out of intuition. ... The threat of negative marks will never allow intuition to grow in a student,” the judge remarked.
Does the court verdict feel like a welcome move? Will it induce more boldness and develop a sense of intuition in the students? As most of the developed countries don’t follow the system, should we abolish it at the earliest? Or as the CBSE claims, will the system ensure that only deserving candidates get selected? Should students qualify exams merely due to the luck factor?